9th Circuit reinstates Kern county sludge ban: ballot initiative did not violate commerce clause, court rules.(legal digest)

A Kern County voter initiative prohibiting the disposal of sewage sludge on fields in the county has new life. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal District Court judge's ruling that the initiative violated the United Slates constitution's commerce clause.

The unanimous three-judge appellate panel held that the alleged harm caused by the initiative is not even "marginally related" to the purpose of the commerce clause. The suit, which was filed by Southern California sanitation agencies, sludge trucking companies and Kern County landowners, was returned to the District Court for the Central District of California for further consideration.

Sewage sludge is the common name for the organic solids leftover from the treatment of municipal wastewater. For decades, …