In a lawsuit brought by a coalition of nonprofit animal and public interest organizations, a federal district court in Idaho found that state’s Ag-gag law to be unconstitutional.
After a 2014 Mercy for Animals video of workers dragging a cow on the floor using a tractor and beating, kicking and jumping on cows, the Idaho Dairymen’s Association successful lobbied the state legislature to pass a bill criminalizing undercover investigations such as the one that exposed the wrongdoing at Dry Creek Dairy.
“[T]he Court finds that [the law] violates the First Amendment right to free speech. In addition, the Court finds that [the law] violates the Equal Protection Clause because it was motivated in substantial part by animus towards animal welfare groups, and because it impinges on free speech, a fundamental right.”
B. Lynn Winmill, Chief Judge, United States District Court
This is the first time a court has held ag-gag legislation to be unconstitutional. Read more about the case in this ALDF press release (ALDF was one of the plaintiffs); the court’s decision is here.
