ACLU Suing Iowa Over Ag-gag Law

ACLU Iowa has filed a lawsuit challenging the sates new ag-gag law.  Filed Monday, the lawsuit claims the law is unconstitutional, like the 2012 law passed in Iowa that was struck down in a federal court in January. The new law creates a new crime, called “agricultural production facility trespass,” that makes it illegal for a person to gain access to an agricultural production facility through deception if the person intends to cause “economic harm or other injury” of the facility.

ACLU Iowa claims the new law “aims to silence critics of worker rights abuses, animal cruelty, unsafe food safety practices, and environmental hazards in agricultural facilities.” However, Iowa agriculture secretary Mike Naig told the Des Moines Register that the law “provides important protections that allow producers to raise their livestock without the fear of special interest groups with malicious intentions harming their animals or businesses.” Lawmakers say the new law narrowly focused on false speech that is intended to cause harm.

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