Should the Iowa Supreme Court declare unconstitutional a law that shields large animal feeding operations from lawsuits? That’s the question the justices heard Monday night during oral arguments in Honomichl v. Valley View Swine. Its answer is likely to have an impact on the number and type of nuisance lawsuits brought by rural residents against the operators of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.A pair of hog confinements built in Wapello County in 2013 prompted this lawsuit. But the broader question is who can sue, and why. Iowa Code 657.11 shields CAFO operators from lawsuits for nuisance resulting in a loss of enjoyment of the plaintiffs' property unless one of two conditions applies: The operators are either violating state or federal law, or they are "unreasonably and for substantial periods of time (interfering) with the person's comfortable use and enjoyment" of their property and failing to comply with accepted industry best practices.Landowners can still sue for damages if they can prove they suffered a loss in property value, and the court's ruling won't change that, regardless.