Another Iowa 'ag-gag' law, criminalizing the use of cameras in agriculture facilities, is struck down by a federal judge

Pigs in a confined farm (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

An Iowa law meant to limit undercover investigations of agriculture was struck down by a federal judge last week. The law, which criminalized the use of cameras in agriculture facilities, was the third such Iowa "ag-gag" law to be struck down in recent years, reports Clark Kauffman for the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

District Judge Stephanie Rose ruled that the law targeted speech protected by the Constitution. "Recording, editing and producing videos are all protected conduct under the First Amendment, Rose wrote. And while a private landowner has some rights to block others' First Amendment activity on their property, the government does not have the same authority," reports William Morris for the Des Moines Register.

The ruling sided with animal-welfare groups who sued the state last August over the law. Since 2012, the Iowa Legislature has passed four laws targeting "animal rights activists who have published video and images from inside large livestock facilities, sometimes infiltrating them by signing on as employees without revealing their true intent," Morris writes. Three of those laws have been at least partially struck down by federal judges who ruled that the laws tried to regulate speech.