The state of Idaho on Monday filed an appeal to a federal court ruling that deemed as unconstitutional the state’s “ag gag” law that criminalizes undercover investigations in agricultural facilities, according to documents filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Idaho became in February 2014 the seventh of now eight states to enact similar laws. Idaho was responding to an undercover video captured and released by animal activist group Mercy for Animals showing workers at a dairy farm in Hansen, Idaho, abusing cows.
Activist groups led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund sued the state seeking to overturn it. They filed a motion last week asking the court to order the state pay more than $250,000 to cover attorney fees and costs.
In siding with the plaintiffs in his August ruling, U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill stated that the law “seeks to limit and punish those who speak out on topics relating to the agricultural industry, striking at the heart of important First Amendment values. The effect of the statute will be to suppress speech by undercover investigators and whistleblowers concerning topics of great public importance: the safety of the public food supply, the safety of agricultural workers, the treatment and health of farm animals, and the impact of business activities on the environment.”