February 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 animalproducts, or to “a person or entity having a connection to, relationship with, or transactions with ananimal 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 ananimal 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 JointTerrorism 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.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.