Abstract
The term “Ag-Gag” refers to a collection of laws passed by various state legislatures to protect farm animal operations from undercover investigations and whistleblowers that document animal cruelty.1 These laws are also often referred to as farm security laws or antiwhistleblower legislation.2 There have been two phases of these laws within the United States.3 First, in the 1990s, Kansas, Montana, and North Dakota legislators passed laws in response to an uptick in terroristic bombings and arsons occurring primarily at non-farm facilities like research laboratories.4 State legislatures passed the second phase of Ag-Gag laws in the 2010s largely in response to a rise in undercover investigations by animal rights organizations.5 Generally speaking, there are five common core components to Ag- Gag laws.6 While not every law has each component, many of the laws touch on more than one of the following elements: (1) trespass in agricultural facilities, (2) prohibition on filming or distribution of agricultural activities, (3) employment fraud dealing with false information or intentions, (4) delayed reporting of animal abuse, and (5) liability for coconspirators.7 Ag-Gag laws are rarely exercised through prosecution,8 however, many of the laws have been challenged in court by coalitions of animal rights organizations.9 These challenges are primarily brought under the First Amendment.10 Secondarily, these groups also raise challenges based on the laws being overly broad, constituting a content-based or viewpoint discrimination, and for violating animal rights groups’ equal protection and due process rights.11
Recommended Citation
Kelly Shanahan,
Taking Down the Eighth Circuit Monolith: Big-Ag & Ag-Gag,
101 Neb. L. Rev.
(2022)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol101/iss1/10