Lawsuit Filed Against Iowa ‘Ag-Gag’ Law

A coalition of animal-rights and food safety groups filed a federal lawsuit this week against Iowa’s “ag-gag” law, which makes it a crime to conduct undercover investigations of farms and slaughterhouses. The groups, including the Animal Legal Defense Fund, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and others, say the law is unconstitutional. A Courthouse News Dot Com article says the suit alleges that the law prevents them from investigating alleged animal abuses in Iowa-based livestock confinement operations, egg production operations, and slaughterhouses. The groups are represented by an attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa. The two local plaintiffs in the suit include Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Bailing Out Benji. A spokesman for the state attorney general said they’d just received the complaint and weren’t able to comment on it yet. A first conviction under the law is a misdemeanor, which can mean up to a year in jail. The second or subsequent conviction is an aggravated misdemeanor and can mean up to two years in jail. The groups argue that the law violates their First Amendment rights and the equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution.