This is from the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Animal Rights “Terrorism” Law Should be Struck Down, Attorneys Argue
press@ccrjustice.orgFebruary 3, Boston – Today, attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) urged the First Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as a violation of the First Amendment. Enacted in 2006, the AETA punishes anyone found to have caused the loss of property or profits to a business or other institution that uses or sells animals or animal products, or to “a person or entity having a connection to, relationship with, or transactions with an animal enterprise.” Critics argue that the law is so broad that it punishes peaceful protests like boycotts and picketing that cause businesses to lose profits and turns non-violent civil disobedience into “terrorism.” CCR filed the first civil challenge to the AETA, Blum v. Holder, in 2011.
“Like other laws sweeping the country – most
prominently, state-level ag-gag legislation – the AETA is aimed not at
illegal activity, for which ample criminal statutes already exist, but
at silencing activists,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior
Staff Attorney Rachel Meeropol. “This law takes the whistleblowing,
boycotts, and peaceful protests that we celebrate from numerous social
movements throughout our history and turns them into terrorist
offenses.”
Blum was filed on behalf of five animal rights
activists with long histories of participating in peaceful protests and
advocacy efforts who have limited or even ceased their lawful advocacy
out of fear of being prosecuted as terrorists. One of the plaintiffs in Blum, Lauren Gazzola, was convicted under the previous version of the law,
the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, and served 40 months in federal
prison for her role in publishing a website that advocated and reported
on protest activity against an animal testing lab in New Jersey. CCR
filed an amicus brief in Ms. Gazzola’s criminal case.
“I spent years investigating the brutality that
animals endure in agriculture and educating the public about it,” said
lead plaintiff Sarahjane Blum. “But after watching some of my closest
friends hauled off to prison for engaging in free speech and lawful
protests, I have limited my activism out of fear that I could be
next. If this law does nothing other than criminalize activity that is
already illegal, why does it exist at all?”
District Judge Joseph L. Tauro dismissed the case in
March, ruling that the activists did not have standing to bring the
suit. He did not address the central First Amendment questions raised in
the case. Today’s appeal argues that the Judge incorrectly dismissed
the case by misinterpreting the AETA as criminalizing only physical
destruction of tangible property and threats, despite the law’s broad
prohibition.
In the first use of the AETA in 2009, four activists were indicted and arrested
in California by the Joint Terrorism Task Force for protesting, writing
on sidewalks with chalk, chanting, leafleting, and using the Internet
to find information on animal researchers. They each faced ten years in
prison. A federal judge dismissed that case in 2010. CCR was co-counsel
in the California AETA case.
Blum v. Holder was
filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Professor Alexander Reinert, of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law,
along with David Milton and Howard Friedman of the Law Offices of Howard
Friedman PC, are co-counsel on the case.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
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