Idaho asks appeals court to uphold ban on spying at farms
Source: Associated Press
Gene Johnson, Associated Press
Updated 1:51 pm, Friday, May 12, 2017
SEATTLE (AP) — Idaho asked a federal appeals court Friday to reinstate its ban on spying at farms, dairies and slaughterhouses after a lower court judge sided with animal rights activists who said the ban violated free speech rights.
Idaho lawmakers in 2014 made it a criminal offense to enter agricultural facilities by misrepresentation to gain access to records or to make undercover audio or video recordings. The state's large dairy industry had complained that videos of cows being abused at a southern Idaho dairy unfairly hurt business.
Animal rights activists, civil rights groups and media organizations sued, saying the law criminalized a long tradition of undercover journalism and would require people who expose wrongdoing to pay restitution to the businesses they target.
A federal judge in Idaho agreed, blocking the law as an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution safeguarding free speech, the first time such a law had been struck down.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Idaho-asks-appeals-court-to-uphold-ban-on-spying-11141926.php
= new reply since forum marked as read