The City of Chicago has recently banned city restaurants from selling foie gras, the fattened liver of ducks or geese. The ban is the result of complaints that the production of foie gras is not humane. The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog reports that litigation has ensued with the Illinois Restaurant Association and Allen’s New American Café, a Chicago restaurant, filing a complaint asserting that the Chicago ban is illegal. The claim, which municipal lawyers will be familiar with, is that the state constitution only permits municipalities to legislate regarding local problems and not activities that are more properly dealt with by the state. Stay tuned.
Legal information and research resources from The Ohio State University's Michael E. Moritz Law Library