SACRAMENTO, United States, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration has filed a 16-page complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, seeking to overturn the state's cage-free egg standards, arguing they inflate food costs nationwide and are preempted by federal law.

The lawsuit filed on Wednesday targets Proposition 2 of 2008 and Proposition 12 of 2018, which require every egg-laying hen whose eggs are sold in California to be housed in a cage-free system with at least one square foot, about 0.09 square meters, of usable floor space and freedom to turn around. Violations can carry penalties of up to 1,000 U.S. dollars and six months in county jail.

U.S. Justice Department lawyers described the state rules as "unnecessary red tape" that "do not advance consumer welfare," contending that California has "effectively prevented farmers across the country from using a number of agricultural production methods which were in widespread use and which helped keep eggs affordable."

The U.S. Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970 gives Washington sole authority to regulate egg quality, inspection and packaging, the complaint added.

Average retail egg prices reached 4.55 dollars per dozen in May, doubling pre-pandemic levels, according to CBS News.

The complaint argued that California, which consumes a large share of the nation's eggs, aggravated those costs by dictating production standards beyond its borders.

California Governor Gavin Newsom's press office dismissed the action in a post on social platform X, saying President Donald Trump is "back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything."

Previous attempts by other states and industry groups to undo California's standards failed when the U.S. Supreme Court declined review in 2019 and rejected a pork producers' case in 2023.

The federal government now asks the court to declare the measures unconstitutional and bar their enforcement, setting up another high-stakes test of how far states may go in regulating products sold across state lines. ■