Supreme Court to hear key cases involving pork, copyright infringement

The Supreme Court is set to continue its new term with important cases that could affect American pork prices and copyright infringement rules. The first case, set to be heard Tuesday, involves a California animal cruelty law.

Voters passed Proposition 12 back in 2018. It stipulates that pork sold in the state needs to come from pigs whose mothers were raised with at least 24 square feet of space.

Two pork industry groups sued over the proposition. The Iowa-based National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation argue nearly all of California’s pork comes from out of state, and the majority of sows aren’t raised under conditions that would meet Proposition 12′s standards.

The question for the high court is whether California has impermissibly burdened the pork market and improperly regulated an industry outside its borders. Pork produces said complying with Proposition 12 could cost the industry $290 million to $350 million.

After the pork case, the Supreme Court is set to hear a copyright case over a painting of the late rock star Prince done by the iconic artist Andy Warhol. The painting was based on a photograph taken of Prince by celebrity photographer Lynn Goldsmith in 1981.

Goldsmith was photographing Prince for Newsweek magazine. Warhol made 14 silkscreen prints and two pencil illustrations based on one of the photos.

Goldsmith said she learned of Warhol’s works only after Prince’s 2016 death. She countersued the Andy Warhol Foundation for copyright infringement in 2017 after it asked a Manhattan federal court to rule that his works did not violate her rights. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the estate’s appeal of a lower court’s decision favoring Goldsmith.

The case centers on how courts decide when an artist makes “fair use” of another’s work under copyright law. The dispute over the legal boundary between inspiration and misuse has drawn broad interest for its implications for artists.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.