![]() ![]() In December 2019, a federal judge in the U.S. Animal rights groups filed a lawsuit on April 22, 2019, to stop the new law. Just a few weeks later, on March 12, 2019, the Iowa Legislature passed a new law making it a trespass crime to conduct undercover investigations at livestock farms. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Des Moines struck down the law, ruling that the ban on undercover investigations at factory farms and slaughterhouses violated the First Amendment. In 2017, a coalition of animal, environmental and community advocacy groups, led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, challenged the law’s constitutionality. The state of Iowa has been embroiled in a legal battle over ag-gag legislation since passing its first ag-gag law in 2012. It does not apply to employees of the facilities who are working. In addition, it does not apply to people who have been given permission by the owner to be on the property. It also does not pertain to people having “lawful authority” to enter onto a property, including federal, state and local government officials. The new trespass law does not apply to people entering a right-of-way if they have not been notified or requested by signs or other means “to abstain from entering” a right-of-way or “to vacate the right-of-way.” “A person commits food operation trespass by entering or remaining on the property of a food operation without the consent of a person who has real or apparent authority to allow the person to enter or remain on the property,” the new law reads. The 12-page bill includes two divisions: one on animal health and the second, food operation trespass, at the bottom of the legislation. The new law forbids what it calls “food operation trespass,” which is now a misdemeanor for a first offense and a felony for subsequent offenses. ![]()
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