Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 4/23/19


Iowa’s second version of a law aimed at protecting agricultural facilities from animal activist investigations is — like its predecessor — unconstitutional, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and other plaintiffs argue in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in March, Iowa’s new law specifically criminalizes “agricultural production facility trespass.”

The law makes it illegal for a person to gain access to facilities including food and meat processing plants, livestock facilities and puppy mills through deception if the person intends to cause “economic harm or other injury” to the facility.

In January, a federal court struck down a similar law the Iowa Legislature passed in 2012, deeming that law unconstitutional because it violated free speech.

ALDF and the other public interest groups say Iowa’s new law, which they’ve dubbed “Ag Gag 2.0,” has the same flaw.

“The First Amendment protects exposés, boycotts, and protests of agricultural facilities, even though those activities may injure a business’s profits and reputation,” said the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Federal courts in other states have struck down similar laws, saying they also wrongly suppress free speech.

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