{"id":3153,"date":"2013-04-02T09:54:44","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T15:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=3153"},"modified":"2013-04-02T10:03:50","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T16:03:50","slug":"3153","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=3153","title":{"rendered":"Noted Republican tells Indiana legislature to ditch “AgGag” bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2, 2013-by Leigh DeNoon, Public News Service-Indiana<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

An Indiana University law professor is questioning the constitutionality of Indiana’s so-called Ag-Gag bill, a measure supporters claim will protect farmers from exploitation by activist groups.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 373 will be heard next on the floor of the Indiana House after passing a committee with a major amendment last Thursday. The amendment by the House sponsor, Representative Bill Friend, makes it a Class A misdemeanor to photograph at a farm or business without written permission from the owner.<\/p>\n

IU law professor Seth Lahn said he believes the bill violates the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

“Whether you come at it from a position of food safety or working conditions or animal cruelty – it gets into a number of areas that, I think, the courts have always recognized – and common sense tells you, is an issue the public has an interest in hearing about.”<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a>

Illustration \u00a9 2011 John Blair<\/p><\/div>\n

Lahn noted that there already are legal ways to get at prohibited conduct: charges of trespassing, fraud, and destruction of property. Friend’s amendment also added a new crime to the bill: lying on a job application with the intent of harming a business. No public comment was allowed on the amendment before the bill passed out of committee 9 to 3 on a party-line vote.<\/p>\n

The state director of Indiana’s chapter of The Humane Society, Erin Huang, said she worries about what’s happening behind the scenes that brought this bill about.<\/p>\n

“You know, big ag is trying to push this, and push a bill that would keep people from knowing what’s happening with their food production,” she said. “Just goes to show how much they have to hide. ”<\/p>\n

National GOP strategist Mary Matalin, in an unlikely pairing with the animal-rights group PETA, released a video message directed at Hoosier lawmakers. She said that this time she agrees with her husband, Democratic party strategist James Carville.<\/p>\n

“I’m sending you this video appeal because you have before you a bill that would criminalize filming on factory farms and in slaughterhouses,” Matalin said. “My husband James and I may be polar opposites on most political issues, but on this one we’re together: we are asking you to please vote against these ag-gag bills. ”<\/p>\n

In the video, Matalin said that instead of fixing the problems, big agriculture interests are trying to blame the messenger. She listed farm-animal abuse cases in West Virginia and Iowa where undercover PETA videotapes helped prosecutors convict those responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2, 2013-by Leigh DeNoon, Public News Service-Indiana An Indiana University law professor is questioning the constitutionality of Indiana’s so-called Ag-Gag bill, a measure supporters claim will protect farmers from exploitation by activist groups. Senate Bill 373 will be heard … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[265,268,266,17,267,264],"class_list":["post-3153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animal-cruelty","tag-farm-news","tag-humane-society","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-legislature","tag-peta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3153"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3159,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153\/revisions\/3159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}