Vermont’s GMO labeling law could face legal challenges on three grounds

Expect two things to happen now that Vermont’s legislature has passed H.112.

Any day now, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) is expected to make history by signing that bill into law as he has suggested, making his the first state to require genetically modified food to be labeled as such. Then, maybe not too long after that, expect the state to be sued over it.

There’s no guarantee of legal action, but legislators, officials and advocates are preparing for it. Advocates expect industry will challenge the law on three constitutional grounds, none of which they expect to be successful (of course). Here’s how the food industry may fight back and why labeling proponents think they can win, according to their legal analyses.

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The first argument that industry is expected to make in challenging Vermont’s GMO law is that it violates commercial free speech rights under the First Amendment. Another argument that proponents of GMO labeling expect to hear is that Vermont’s new law stomps on territory covered by the federal government. The third challenge labeling proponents expect to hear is that the GMO law unconstitutionally interferes with interstate commerce.

Read the full, original article: How Vermont plans to defend the nation’s first GMO law