I assume, or at least hope, that if the farmer wins, it will open up a lot of other lawsuits, to dismantle all this nonsense that goes back to the New Deal. It’s the Commerce Clause run amok.
I’ve got mixed feelings on this. I agree that they shouldn’t be given full human rights, but I do think we should make distinctions as a function of intelligence, and perhaps even recognize some degree of moral agency (e.g., dolphins). It also raises the issue of how we would treat extraterrestrials as a function of those things.