CALIFORNIA ALLIGATOR IMPORT BAN IS HALTED

California cannot ban the importation and sale of crocodile and alligator products, a federal judge has ruled, in a victory for the state of Louisiana, which challenged the ban along with businesses in multiple states.

Federal law controls trade in those products and preempts California from barring trade in them, Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller in Sacramento wrote in a ruling dated Tuesday.

Mueller had already blocked enforcement of the law while lawsuits challenging it played out in her court. Plaintiffs included businesses based in California, Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Montana and Wyoming.

The California ban had covered products made from alligators and two species of crocodile that are listed as threatened — Nile and saltwater. All can be sold legally under international treaty and U.S. federal law.

The American alligator is no longer threatened or endangered but it’s treated as threatened because alligator products can be difficult to tell apart from products made from endangered crocodiles.

Mueller rejected arguments that California was only seeking to regulate activity within the state. “California is not regulating crocodile takings with its borders,” she wrote. “Nothing in the record suggests crocodiles reside in California, migrate into California or have been introduced into California.”

Mueller said federal law and regulations spelling out how and when skins and other products from the animals can be imported, exported and sold cannot be preempted by California.