FogHorn Leg Horn forfeits match thanks to 8th Circuit

Anna Slavin made her lifes work the care and breeding of exotic gamebirds. She incidentally raised some of the baddest fighting roosters in Western Arkansas, the bluegrass country of cock fighting. The meddlesome Federal Government squelched her enterprise when Congress in 2002 added provisions to the Animal Welfare Act that prohibit the “knowing transportation of birds in interstate or foreign commerce for purposes of having the birds participate in a fighting venture, regardless whether the fight would be legal in the state where it was to occur.” 7 USC 2156.

Anna sued in Federal Court to prevent enforcement of the law, claming the law exceeded Congressional authority to regulate Interstate Commerce (United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 558 (1995) (Congressional Commerce power extends to regulating channels, instrumentalities of interstate commerce as well as objects in interstate commerce); ; the law was unconstitutionally vague and finally an unconstitutional taking. The Eighth Circuit dismissed all claims; first crossing state lines is commerce; second the law was not vague See Vill. of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 503 (1982) (business regulation is not facially vague where law fairly warns of proscribed conduct; scienter element in regulation mitigates vagueness notice claim)

Cockfighting apparently is a legal entertainment in Louisiana and New Mexico, I am sure thousands of roosters will thank Congress for sending them to the packing plants instead of the fighting pits.