"Iowa's Second 'Ag-Gag' Law Violates 1st Amendment, Federal Court Rules"

"Seven months after a divided federal appeals court partially upheld the first of Iowa's "ag-gag" laws, a judge has ruled the state's second such law is unconstitutional.

Monday's decision by U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose means that Iowa Code section 717A.3B, which was temporarily blocked by a different judge in 2019, will remain unenforceable. The case had been on hold while the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considered a challenge to an earlier version of the law.

Iowa has passed four laws since 2012 in response to animal rights activists who have worked to publish video and images from inside large livestock facilities, sometimes infiltrating them by getting themselves hired on as employees."

William Morris reports for the Des Moines Register March 14, 2022.

Source: Des Moines Register, 03/15/2022