On July 14, 2026 Judge William Q. Hayes of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted a preliminary injunction in California League of Food Producers v. Bonta (Case No. 3:26-cv-01675), barring Attorney General Rob Bonta from enforcing SB 343, the state's "Truth in Recycling" law, until further order of the court. The court found plaintiffs likely to succeed on their claim that four provisions are unconstitutionally vague under the Fourteenth Amendment, and likely to succeed on their First Amendment claim under the Central Hudson test because the state’s evidence fell short on the third and fourth prongs. The court found the four provisions severable, so the law's core 60 percent collection-and-sorting threshold survives on paper, but Attorney General enforcement is now paused less than three months before the October 4, 2026 compliance deadline. The suit was brought by a coalition of 18 food, agriculture, packaging, and retail groups, including trade associations and six California commissions. (Corrected October 12, 2026.) (Corrected October 14, 2026: the First Amended Complaint (ECF 7, April 7, 2026) names 21 plaintiffs, the 18 who filed the suit plus the California Retailers Association, Consumer Brands Association, and Personal Care Products Council.) The ruling is preliminary, not a final judgment; litigation continues before Judge Hayes and an appeal to the Ninth Circuit is expected. Because SB 54 relies on SB 343's recyclability criteria to determine which materials qualify as recyclable in California, the decision carries implications for the broader packaging EPR program. Source:
Resource Recycling (July 15, 2026);
Packaging Dive (July 15, 2026).
(Corrected October 7, 2026: the July 14 order is a preliminary injunction ruling under the Winter test. It holds that plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their vagueness claim against each of the four provisions, and its First Amendment analysis is likewise a likelihood-of-success finding, not a final decision that SB 343 is unconstitutional (ECF 24).)
Update, October 7, 2026: no notice of appeal appears on the docket as mirrored September 23, 2026, and the Attorney General answered the First Amended Complaint on August 13, 2026 (ECF 26). On that record the injunction against Attorney General enforcement remains in place, and the October 4, 2026 date passed while it was in force. See the
CLFP v. Bonta case page.