ag-gag

June 14, 2020 In News

FERN: Judge declares much of N.C. ag-gag law unconstitutional

A federal judge handed a victory late Friday to animal-welfare advocates when he declared that much of North Carolina’s ag-gag law violated the First Amendment’s free-speech provisions. The ruling could also help employees trying to expose slaughterhouses that put their workforces at risk for Covid-19…

November 20, 2019 In Cases

Iowa Ag-Gag II (ALDF v. Reynolds)

Iowa’s second effort to prevent journalists or activists from entering livestock facilities under false pretenses to report on animal abuse was passed and signed into law just two months after U.S. District Judge James Gritzner ruled that Iowa’s law passed in 2012 violated the First…

November 19, 2019 In Cases

Iowa Ag-Gag I (ALDF, et al. v. Reynolds, et al.)

Plaintiffs challenged an Iowa law that criminalized undercover investigations at factory farms and slaughterhouses. Specifically, this statute (the Ag-Gag law) made it a crime to gain access to, or employment at, such a facility under false pretenses—that is, through speech. The district court struck down…

September 25, 2019 In Cases

Utah Ag-gag (Animal Legal Defense Fund v Herbert)

Amici brief in constitutional challenge to a Utah statute that criminalizes core whistleblowing activity in the farmed animal agricultural industry—in particular, slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, and factory farms. The law at issue—enacted by the state of Utah in 2012—makes it a crime to “interfere” with any…