U.S. District Judge James Gritzner issued a preliminary injunction on Dec. 2 to allow interested parties to proceed with a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Senate File 519, also known as Iowa’s ag-gag rule.
The rule would subject individuals to criminal prosecution if they disrupt agricultural production at a facility.
Trespassing includes the “use of deception to obtain access to a facility, which is not open to the public, with the intent to cause physical or economic harm or other injury to the facility’s operations, property, or persons.”
The law was approved and passed in March 2019, after its predecessor was ruled unconstitutional in January.
“We warned Iowa legislators that Iowa’s ag gag law would trample on free speech in our state, and violate the Constitution,” said Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.
“The First Amendment rights of journalists, investigators and advocates that are at stake in this case are vital to our democracy.”
In response to the injunction, Sen. Annette Sweeney (R-IA), vice chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said, “It’s a sad day for America.”
