Oklahoma Farm Bureau teamed up with four fellow agricultural organizations to support poultry farmers in a case before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
OKFB joined the Poultry Federation, American Farmers and Ranchers, the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and the Oklahoma Pork Council to request to submit an amicus curiae – or “friend of the court” – brief in support of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry’s appeal of a lawsuit brought by the Spring Creek Coalition against the agency for its regulation of poultry growers.
In June 2024, the judge in Delaware County District Court issued an order supporting the coalition’s demands and took matters a step further, prohibiting ODAFF from granting the annual licenses to new or existing poultry feeding operations in the state until ODAFF implements a set of notice requirements and other obligations set forth by the court. The requirements exceed the authority the legislature has granted to the agency.
OKFB and the other agriculture groups believe the judge in this case acted not only as the judicial branch, but all three branches of government – dictating legislation and administrative rulemaking from the bench.
The group believes the decision was a gross misappropriation of the three unique branches of government, and believes the policymaking process should be exclusive to the legislative branch.
In the brief, the group urged the Oklahoma Supreme Court to consider the lower court’s overreach as well as the impact it will have on the hundreds of Oklahoma’s registered poultry feeding operations, the more than 26,000 jobs it creates and the families and communities they support.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court will now consider whether to take up the case, send it to the Court of Civil Appeals or take other action. Click here learn more about the original ruling.
