Kansas asks U.S. Supreme Court to hear case over state's 'ag-gag' law - Reuters

(Reuters) - Kansas' attorney general on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court's decision finding parts of the state's "ag-gag" law – among the first laws in the nation aimed at undercover animal rights activists – violate the U.S. Constitution's 1st Amendment.

In the state's high court petition, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said a majority of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel got it wrong in an August ruling that said sections of the Kansas Farm Animal and Field Crop and Research Facilities Protection Act run afoul of free speech protections.

The law is aimed at deterring efforts by undercover activists to document animal treatment at livestock operations. Activists like those working with the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), one the groups that sued over the law, have taken jobs at facilities without revealing their true purpose and then publicized alleged abuses.

Schmidt said in a statement that he was "hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will recognize the need to provide clarity on this subject."

Kelsey Eberly, a staff attorney at ALDF, said the group and its co-plaintiffs are "evaluating the petition." The coalition had sued in 2018 over the 1990 law.

In Wednesday's filing, Schmidt said taking the case would allow the Supreme Court to resolve a split among federal appeals courts "on whether the First Amendment prohibits States from criminalizing trespass by deception at animal facilities."

The attorney general said that parts of a 9th Circuit ruling that voided sections of Idaho's ag-gag law in 2018 conflicts with the 10th Circuit ruling on Kansas' ag-gag law.

Meanwhile, an 8th Circuit decision earlier this year that a key part of Iowa's 2012 ag-gag law passes constitutional muster conflicts with the 9th Circuit ruling, Schmidt's filing said.

The case is Kelly v. Animal Legal Defense Fund, U.S. Supreme Court, No. N/A.

For Laura Kelly, et al: Brant Laue with the Kansas Attorney General's Office

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source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/kansas-asks-us-supreme-court-hear-case-over-states-ag-gag-law-2021-11-17/

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