bounty44
Posts: 6374
Joined: 11/1/2014 Status: offline
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not my intent to switch the topic to animal cruelty---im looking for parallels in the cases. quote:
There have been dozens of undercover employment-based investigations of the meat, dairy, and egg industries by animal protection groups in the past 15 years. These investigations have led to felony conviction for egregious cruelty to animals, the country's largest meat recall, and a civil settlement of $497 million. They have also led to improved conditions for farm animals, laws against certain confinement systems in nine states, and corporate farm animal welfare policies from most of the country's largest fast food restaurants, grocery chains, and meat companies, from McDonald's and Burger King to Smithfield Foods and Hormel. In 2011, the meat industry responded, but not by improving conditions for farm animals; instead, it proposed laws in four states to prohibit the investigations. In 2012, pro-factory farm legislators enacted three such laws, and last year, they proposed eleven more. This year, they have proposed half a dozen, and passed one. Animal protection, consumer safety, and free speech advocates are fighting back. In March, a coalition of groups and individuals led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund and ACLU of Idaho filed a lawsuit against the state of Idaho to overturn its version of these anti-American and unconstitutional laws. This suit puts other states on notice: If you pass an ag-gag law, expect to defend it in federal court. The constitutional case is simple: The laws violate at least three separate Constitutional requirements. First, the government can't restrict speech based on its content. [the second one deals with the relationship between the state and federal govt and isn't applicable] Third, states cannot pass laws that target classes of citizens based on animus or hostility.... As the editorial page editor of the largest daily paper in Wyoming put it, "Criminalizing undercover investigations at such farm operations would effectively tell the owners that they can do anything they want to their livestock." Ag-gag laws violate the will of the American people, and they contradict American values as enshrined in our Constitution. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-friedrich/ag-gag-laws_b_4936998.html
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