New York City’s Foie Gras Ban Is Revived by Appeals Court (1)

New York City can ban the sale of foie gras, a state intermediate appeals court ruled Thursday, the latest in a long-running back-and-forth between the city and state over who has the power to regulate the controversial delicacy.

The ruling paves the way for a 2019 city law banning the sale of the item to take effect. The state, which has opposed the city’s ban, could still appeal to New York’s highest court, however.

The city won’t start enforcing the prohibition until there’s a “final, nonappealable” ruling, a City Law Department spokesman said.

The decision reverses a lower court that said the city didn’t have the authority to implement the prohibition on the food, which is made from the livers of ducks or geese. The city sued after the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture found the ban violated state law by harming farmers outside the city.

An upstate trial court sided with the commissioner, but the Albany-based New York Appellate Division Third Department disagreed.

“Nothing supports the conclusion that the Legislature intended for local governments’ lawmaking authority under home rule to be limited by potential effects to agricultural districts elsewhere in the state,” the appeals court said.

The New York City Council said in 2019 that it passed the ban because creating foie gras requires the inhumane force-feeding of ducks and geese to obtain their fatty livers.

A spokesperson for New York State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office represents the commissioner, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Animal rights advocates cheered the ruling. “We are very happy that restaurants in the City will no longer be able to serve this horrendously cruel item,” said Bryan Pease, an attorney for Voters for Animal Rights, which worked with the city council to pass the ban.

California has passed a statewide version of such a ban.

The case is City of New York v. Ball, N.Y. App. Div., 3d Dep’t, 3/12/26.