Iowa’s Ag-Gag Law Found Unconstitutional…Again
Late last month, we celebrated an exciting win in our ongoing fight against Iowa’s unconstitutional Ag-Gag laws. For the third time, a court has ruled that the state of Iowa’s attempt to bury undercover investigations into its agribusiness sector is unconstitutional. The Iowa law created a new crime of trespassing to engage in video and audio recording, gagging free speech by criminalizing undercover investigations at animal facilities.
In the absence of meaningful federal laws regulating factory farms, undercover investigations have played a critical role in educating the public about the conditions under which their food is produced. These conditions affect the animals and the workers.
“The ability to investigate and document how our food is made is critical in ensuring a just and transparent food system that holds companies and government institutions accountable,” says Public Justice Food Project Litigation Director David Muraskin. “This victory is important for Iowa workers who are placed in dangerous and unsafe workplace conditions and are now protected under the First Amendment to record evidence of these practices.”
Among other things, we successfully argued that Iowa’s latest ag-gag law was both over- and under-inclusive, meaning the law placed unnecessary burdens on speech that did not actually advance government interests (overinclusive), nor did it regulate the full breadth of activities responsible for the so-called harm it was intended to stop (underinclusive). In this case, the defendants could not prove that targeting covert recording activity advances governmental interests any better than existing trespass laws, and they did not produce an explanation for the law’s single-minded focus on recording equipment but not other ways of transmitting private information. We’re proud to join the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), Iowa CCI, Bailing Out Benji, Food and Water Watch, and PETA in our ongoing fight to ensure transparency and accountability in our food system.
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