U.S. District judge Phyllis Hamilton refused to block the enforcement of California’s ban on the sale of shark fins, rejecting charges that the law is discriminatory against Chinese Americans. Two organizations, Asian Americans for Political Advancement and the San Francisco Chinatown Neighborhood Association, had asked for enforcement to halt. Said Judge Hamilton:
“Plaintiffs have provided no evidence that the law was enacted for the purpose of discriminating against Chinese Americans. Plaintiff’s own evidence shows that only a small percent of Chinese Americans eat shark fin soup regularly, and that approximately half of Chinese Americans actually support the Shark Fin Law.”
Enforcement of the ban is scheduled to begin July 2013. According to court documents, some restaurants estimate the loss of income in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
