A judge in the federal District

Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters

A judge in the federal District Court for Idaho ruled the "ag-gag" law unconstitutional, citing first Amendment protections for free speech.

Judge Strikes Down Idaho 'Ag-Gag' Law, Raising Questions For Other States

August 4, 2015 National Public Radio (NPR)

Laws in Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and North Carolina have also made it illegal for activists to smuggle cameras into industrial animal operations.

Idaho's so-called "ag-gag" law, which outlawed undercover investigations of farming operations, is no more. A judge in the federal District Court for Idaho decided Monday that it was unconstitutional, citing First Amendment protections for free speech. But what about the handful of other states with similar laws on the books?

Laws in Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa have also made it illegal for activists to smuggle cameras into industrial animal operations. A new North Carolina law goes into effect in January 2016. But now those laws' days could be numbered, according to the lead attorney for the coalition of animal welfare groups that sued the state of Idaho.

"This is a total victory on our two central constitutional claims," says University of Denver law professor Justin Marceau, who represented the plaintiff, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, in the case. "Ag-gag laws violate the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause. This means that these laws all over the country are in real danger."

"Ag-gag" refers to a variety of laws meant to curb undercover investigations of agricultural operations, often large dairy, poultry and pork farms. The Idaho law criminalized video or audio recording of a farm without the owner's consent and lying to a farm owner to gain employment there to do an undercover investigation.

Other "ag-gag" laws require that animal abuse be reported within a specific time frame, a tactic animal activists say is meant to prevent them from gathering evidence of an abuse pattern rather than just a singular event.

Utah's "ag-gag" law is the subject of another federal lawsuit, filed by the ALDF and PETA. Other states' laws go back to the early 1990s when Kansas passed criminal penalties for anyone found to damage or harm an agricultural research facility. Iowa's statute is considered to be the first in a batch of more recent "ag-gag" laws. Signed into law in 2012, it was the first to criminalize secretly videotaping a farm without the owner's permission.

Ag-gag legislation state by state: https://www.aspca.org/animal-protection/public-policy/ag-gag-legislation-state