From our sister organization: Victory in the AETA Appeals Case! On Friday, March 7, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a ruling by the U.S. District Court in the District of Massachusetts that a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) lacked standing. As NABR members are aware, five activists, represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), filed suit in U.S. District Court in late 2011. On March 18, 2013, the suit was dismissed because activists lacked standing to challenge the law. The activists’ challenge rested on their asserted fear of prosecution of engaging in First Amendment-protected activities, such as protesting or letter-writing campaigns. The District Court determined that lawful advocacy is not prohibited by the AETA and found the activists had no standing to challenge the constitutionality of the law, since they failed to indicate an “intention to engage in any activity ‘that could reasonably be construed’ to fall within the statute.” In the original District Court suit, NABR and eleven other organizations filed an amicus brief on March 12, 2012 supporting the governments motion to dismiss the case and urging the court to affirm the constitutionality of the AETA. This is a significant day for the biomedical research community. Thanks to these two important rulings, the constitutionality of the AETA has been upheld once again by the judicial system. Please stay tuned as NABR will provide a more detailed analysis of today’s ruling early next week.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 00:30:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015