After courtroom victories in Utah and Idaho, “expect challenges in the Midwest to so-called ‘ag gag’ laws that criminalize certain forms of data collection and recording on farms and ranches,” reports Harvest Public Media. University of Denver law professor Justin Marceau says, “Laws in states like Iowa and Kansas are crying out for a challenge at this point,” adding that animal rights groups are preparing challenges in at least two states.
Marceau was one of the attorneys representing animal rights groups in the successful challenge of the Utah law. A federal judge has declared the Utah law an unconstitutional violation of free speech, and the state attorney general announced last week that the state will not appeal the decision.
Eight states — Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina and North Dakota — “have some form of ag-gag law currently on the books,” says Harvest Media. “Ag-gag laws were born out of farmers’ and ranchers’ frustrations with animal rights activists surreptitiously recording video of purported abuse and then publishing the video for public consumption … By criminalizing the collection of images without consent, the animal activists are suddenly opened up to potential charges.”