Judge: North Dakota anti-corporate farm law constitutional

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has upheld North Dakota’s Depression-era anti-corporate farming law.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in Bismarck ruled Friday that the law meets constitutional requirements.

North Dakota Farm Bureau sued in 2016 to do away with the law that voters approved in 1932 to protect the state’s family farming heritage.

The Farm Bureau and other plaintiffs argued the law limits farmers’ business options and interferes with interstate commerce by barring out-of-state corporations from being involved in North Dakota’s farm industry.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota Farmers Union and the Dakota Resource Council disputed that in their defense of the law.

Farmers Union maintains that family farming is the backbone of North Dakota agriculture. The group led the fight to create the corporate farming law in the 1930s.