The White House is backing efforts by Chinatown businessmen to get California’s ban on the sale of shark fin overturned, reports the SF Chronicle.
Lawyers for the Chinatown Neighborhood Association and the Asian Americans for Political Advancement argue the Chinese American community is the only community affected by the law. It asked the Federal Court of Appeals to throw the law out as both discriminatory and conflicting with federal law.
The Obama administration in a written brief argued the California law contradicts a federal law by allowing shark fishing to continue while banning the finning of live sharks.
But the state argued the White House argument is a leap of faith by assuming that something bad is going to happen in the future.