Animal welfare groups filed suit in federal court this week to overturn North Carolina’s ‘ag-gag’ law, calling it unconstitutional. By filing the lawsuit, the coalition makes North Carolina another state forced to defend a law criminalizing undercover probes at agriculture facilities. The Coalition includes The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Farm Sanctuary, Food & Water Watch, and the Government Accountability Project, according to Meatingplace. The bill took effect this month following a legislative override of a veto. The challenge to North Carolina’s ag-gag law, according to the coalition that filed it, is the first in the nation to make claims under both the U.S. Constitution and a state constitution. Last year, a federal court overturned Idaho’s ag-gag law on the basis that it violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and in late December a federal judge ruled that a challenge to Wyoming’s law must go forward, citing “serious concerns” about that law’s constitutionality, the coalition noted.
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