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.
