NC Newsline: “Lawyers with the North Carolina Attorney General’s office tried three times to convince a federal court the state’s “ag-gag” law should stand.
They lost in U.S. District Court, which ruled the law violated the constitution.
They lost at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court.
They petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, which declined.
Now the state will pay nearly $885,000 in attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs, including the ASPCA, the Government Accountability Project and Food & Water Watch, who successfully argued that the ag-gag law ran afoul of the First Amendment. Two national law practices, FarmSTAND and Public Justice, and Raleigh firm Whitfield Bryson were among those representing the plaintiffs.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” the plaintiffs said in a joint statement.”