1st Amendment Protects Activist Recordings of Factory Farms, Rules Federal Judge

Iowa animal-rights groups are celebrating after a judge ruled that the state cannot criminalize unauthorized recordings of factory farms, slaughterhouses, puppy mills, and other livestock facilities.

On Monday, Judge Stephanie Rose of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa ruled that a 2021 Iowa "ag-gag" law aimed at preventing undercover investigations of the state's agriculture facilities by animal rights activists presents an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech. The law criminalizes making a video recording while committing the already-illegal act of trespassing on private property. Rose ruled that while the state of Iowa is free to continue punishing trespassing, it cannot try to stop individuals from making recordings while doing so. Thus, as much as the state may dislike undercover recordings of alleged animal abuse, such actions are nonetheless protected by the First Amendment. 

On August 10th, 2021, a collection of animal-rights organizations sued the state on First Amendment grounds. The organizations sought to block the enforcement of the state's ban on unauthorized recordings while trespassing, arguing that the statute "impermissibly restricts speech by making it a crime to place an electronic surveillance device on trespassed property." The state of Iowa argued that the law prohibits conduct, not speech, and thus is not subject to First Amendment oversight. Even if the law did regulate speech, the state claimed that it "is narrowly tailored to a significant governmental interest" and would thus be constitutional.

Judge Rose sided with the animal-rights organizations, arguing that the act of making a video recording is a form of protected speech...MORE