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Boise, Idaho • A federal judge ruled Monday that Idaho's law banning secret filming of animal abuse at agricultural facilities is unconstitutional. U.S. Judge B. Lynn Winmill found the law violates the First Amendment.

"Audio and visual evidence is a uniquely persuasive means of conveying a message, and it can vindicate an undercover investigator or whistleblower who is otherwise disbelieved or ignored," Winmill wrote in his 29-page ruling. "Prohibiting undercover investigators or whistleblowers from recording an agricultural facility's operations inevitably suppresses a key type of speech because it limits the information that might later be published or broadcast."

A coalition of animal activists, civil rights groups and media organizations sued the state more than a year ago, opposing the so-called "ag gag" law. The coalition said the law made gathering proof of animal abuse a crime with a harsher punishment than the penalty for animal cruelty. Lawmakers approved the law in 2014 after the state's $2.5 billion dairy industry complained that videos of cows being abused at a southern Idaho dairy filmed in 2012 unfairly hurt their business.