"Iowa Republicans scored a big win in their yearslong battle with animal rights group as a federal appeals court reversed prior decisions striking down two state laws aimed at activists who target livestock feedlots and other agribusinesses to expose alleged animal abuses.
Iowa has passed four laws, described by critics as "ag-gag" laws, in the past 12 years, seeking to criminalize activists' efforts to gain access to and record video footage of the alleged animal abuses by Iowa pork producers. The first, second and fourth laws had been struck down by courts as unconstitutional. The third law has been upheld in court.
But on Monday, the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the orders staying the second and fourth laws. The separate decisions hold that the laws ― forbidding use of a camera while trespassing and prohibiting lying on employment applications to gain access to such facilities as an employee ― are not unconstitutional restrictions of free speech."
William Morris reports for the Des Moines Register January 8, 2024.
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