Appeals court upholds California ban on shark fin sales

Appeals court upholds California ban on shark fin sales

Wednesday 29 July 2015 at 3:58 PM ET by Taylor Brailey

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[JURIST] The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] on Monday upheld [opinion, PDF] a California ban [AB 376 text] on the sale of shark fins, which makes it "unlawful for a person to possess, sell, offer for sale, trade, or distribute a shark fin" in the state. The plaintiffs in the case, Chinatown Neighborhood Association and Asian Americans for Political Advancement, are organizations that engage in commerce involving shark fins. The plaintiffs contended that the law violated the Supremacy Clause and the Dormant Commerce Clause [LII backgrounders] of the US Constitution. In upholding the District Court's decision that the law does not violate these constitutional provisions, the Ninth Circuit recognized that the state's interest in regulating fish and wildlife resources, and thus in regulating the protection of sharks, which have been shown to be harmed in the absence of this law.
The Humane Society deems [press release] the court's decision to be a win for the state of California. The organization's deputy director of animal protection litigation, Ralph Henry, stated:

The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International applaud the court for upholding California’s decisive action on this important animal welfare and conservation measure. The California law and similar laws recently passed in more than a half dozen other states are critical tools in preventing the loss of millions of sharks each year to the cruel practice of finning.

To date, eleven states [shark conservation website] have similar shark fin laws in place, and a federal law currently prohibits "shark finning," a process whereby a shark's fins are removed and the shark is killed.