Minnesota deer farmers fight for 'fundamental right' at Eighth Circuit

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CN) — Deer farmers in Minnesota asked an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel Thursday to stop a state law that they say will ban their livelihood statewide after a generation.

The law, enacted by the state legislature in 2023, bars any new registration for white-tail deer farmers to help combat Chronic Wasting Disease, a neurological illness that eventually leads to death and affects deer, elk, moose, reindeer and caribou.

In response to the new law, the Minnesota Deer Farmers Association and several of its members filed a lawsuit against the state arguing that it is a fundamental right to allow residents to pursue a job of their choosing. A federal district court dismissed the lawsuit, saying there is no fundamental right to farm deer.

According to Erick Kaardal, who represents the deer farmers with the Minneapolis-based law firm Mohrman and Kaardal, the law amounts to a permanent prohibition of white-tail deer farming.

Kaardal argued inside a packed courtroom Thursday that the law, which only allows one farming transfer from a holder to an immediate family member, violates “a fundamental right.”

“White-tailed deer farming is an agricultural pursuit under Minnesota law,” Kaardal wrote in his brief to the three-judge panel. “But persons seeking to pursue that occupation or profession are completely prohibited from doing so through the legally-mandated registration process.”

But that right is subject to reasonable regulation, U.S. Circuit Judge David Stras, a Donald Trump appointee, told Kaardal Thursday.

Kaardal conceded that regulation is permitted but that the law essentially denies access to the profession, making it a complete prohibition rather than a regulation.

Kaardal cited one of the plaintiffs, Dennis Udovich, who was formerly a white-tail deer farmer but can no longer get back into the business due to the law.

While the law prohibits new white-tail farmers, stopping chronic wasting disease is important if the state wants to keep a healthy deer population, according to Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Philip Pulitzer, who argued for the state Thursday.

In addition, Pulitzer told the court that the law does not violate any fundamental right, and the spread of the disease concerns Minnesota due to its culture and economic ties to the species.

Under current case law, it’s permissible to bar new entry into a job, he told the court. He added that the state could have banned the practice altogether, but instead decided on an incremental approach by allowing a one-time transfer of registration.

However, U.S. Circuit Judge L. Steven Grasz, a fellow Trump appointee and child of Nebraska farmers, questioned whether the state could ban farming in Minnesota outright.

He asked if that state could ban beef farming to combat climate change and if farming is a deeply rooted tradition in the United States.

Pulitzer said the courts would have to decide that issue but emphasized that the law in question does not ban the practice.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources found 96 deer with the disease in 2024, a number that has continued to increase in recent years.

According to Pulitzer, that rise prompted the state to take more measures against its spread.

“Deer farming — which involves close confinement of deer, and the frequent sale and exchange of deer at long distances — dramatically increases the rate at which CWD can spread,” he wrote in his brief to the court. “The general risks that farmed deer present to the public health and the State of Minnesota’s wild deer population have long led the State to tightly regulate deer farms to minimize contact between farmed deer and wild deer.”

The disease was first found in Minnesota in 2010, though it was first found in the United States in the 1960s, according to the department, which conducts testing throughout the year.

The disease results from a protein mutation in the brain and is part of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, which also include mad cow disease.

Since it is transmissible to humans, Minnesota requires deer farmers and wildlife agents to kill deer found with the disease.

U.S. Circuit Judge Duane Benton, a George W. Bush appointee, also took part in Thursday’s oral arguments.