Challenging Wisconsin’s Hunting Statute as a First Amendment Violation
Joseph Brown v. Jeffery L Kemp
The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in federal court aiming to strike down a Wisconsin statute banning photographing, videotaping, approaching, or even “maintaining a visual or physical proximity to” a hunter.
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In 2017, the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in federal court aiming to strike down a Wisconsin statute banning photographing, videotaping, approaching, or even “maintaining a visual or physical proximity to” a hunter. In addition to criminal penalties, the law subjects violators to civil lawsuits brought by the hunters and trappers themselves.
The lawsuit argues that the law’s restrictions violate the First Amendment — the same constitutional rights two federal judges ruled had been violated by Idaho’s and Utah’s Ag-Gag statutes. Just like these Ag-Gag laws, we argued that the Wisconsin statute at issue is unconstitutional for suppressing speech critical of animal exploitation.
The three plaintiffs in the lawsuit, represented by attorneys from the Animal Legal Defense Fund and a Milwaukee-based law firm, are Wisconsin residents who, as a documentarian, journalist and activist, each rely on the types of monitoring the statute prohibits. The plaintiffs say hunters in the state have been emboldened by the law’s protections, leading to more frequent and aggressive confrontations.
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Recent News
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Court Rules Louisiana Label Censorship Law Unconstitutional After First Amendment Challenge from Tofurky
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Court Bars Enforcement of Iowa’s Unconstitutional Ag-Gag Law While Lawsuit Proceeds
Public interest coalition cheers major victory in lawsuit to strike down law designed to quash undercover investigationsDecember 2, 2019 Press Release -
Coalition Files Lawsuit Challenging Iowa’s Second Unconstitutional Ag-Gag Law
Today, a coalition of public interest groups, led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Iowa’s new Ag-Gag law — a law that is substantively similar to an Iowa law struck down by the same federal court.April 22, 2019 Press Release
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