Search Articles
(CN) — A federal appeals court Thursday again upheld the constitutionality of Iowa’s “ag-gag” statute targeting animal rights activists who record their protests against livestock facilities.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and other animal rights advocates sued the state in 2017 claiming a state law aimed at protecting livestock facilities violates the First Amendment by imposing enhanced criminal penalties for using an electronic surveillance device to record or transmit images while trespassing.
The Eighth Circuit earlier upheld most of the statute, but it found the plaintiffs had standing to challenge the constitutionality of a provision barring a trespasser’s “use” of a camera or recording device. On remand, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose, a Barack Obama appointee, granted the state’s motion to dismiss the suit and held that Iowa’s law withstands constitutional scrutiny as applied to the plaintiffs.
ICCI appealed to the Eighth Circuit, arguing in a brief that Iowa’s statute — in contrast to ordinary trespass law — imposes “significantly enhanced” criminal sanctions “against ICCI’s staff and members who engage in the civil disobedience, if they also record the protests.”
The group said it seeks to act within the “tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience” along the lines of lunch counter sit-ins to draw attention to an issue by accepting punishment for refusing to leave, but its right to free speech is violated when they face enhanced penalties for recording their protests.
Attorney David Muraskin, representing ICCI from Washington, D.C.-based FarmSTAND, told the Eighth Circuit panel during an oral argument in January that a recording made by the group on private property and then used on social media for advocacy is protected speech. “ICCI seeks to protect its right to record when its presence is objected to, but it is recording on property that is otherwise open to the general public and there is no prohibition on recording,” he told the court.
In its decision issued Thursday, the Eighth Circuit did not agree. “While novel, this contention is unsustainable,” U.S. Circuit Judge L. Steven Grasz, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote for the three-judge panel that also included U.S. Circuit Judges Raymond Gruender, a George W. Bush appointee, and James Loken, a George H.W. Bush appointee.
Grasz said the court has already determined that Iowa’s statute may be applied to bar recording during unlawful trespasses in some instances without violating the First Amendment. “ICCI now asks us to shield its members from the statute any time they record while trespassing, so long as they are not explicitly asked to stop recording,” he wrote. “But, based on ICCI’s own allegations, its member plainly want to engage in the exact misconduct [Iowa’s statute] is narrowly tailored to proscribe.”
Courts generally agree that freedom of speech includes expression through making and sharing videos, but the U.S. Supreme Court “has never held that a trespasser … may exercise general rights of free speech on property privately owned and used nondiscriminatorily for private purposes …,” Grasz wrote, quoting a high court decision from 1972.
Thus, he said, “We need not resolve this question because even assuming recording while trespassing implicates the First Amendment, ICCI’s as-applied challenge fails.”
A spokesperson for ICCI said Thursday’s ruling restricts the rights of “people who want to tell the truth about industrial food systems.”
“Big Ag and Farm Bureau want to hide the real story of factory farm livestock production from consumers,” Brenda Brink, an ICCI member from rural Story County, said in a statement Thursday. “But we will never give up, and we won’t let this ruling stop us from telling the truth about corporate ag. We will continue to fight for a just and sustainable food system, our family farmers and our communities.”
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird insisted farmers and businesses should be able to operate without fear of trespassers.
“Today’s decision is the third and definitive victory defending Iowa’s laws that prevent trespassers from lying to get onto a property and then secretly record on it. I’m grateful for this decision," Bird said in a statement. “We have fought to defend our laws that strengthen security for farmers and property owners. This victory is much deserved by our Iowa farmers.”
Follow @roxalaird16Subscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
