Legal Commentary Network
A First Amendment Challenge to Animal Activists' Convictions: How Far Can Protesters Go? Part Two
By JULIE HILDENFindLaw columnist, attorney, and author Julie Hilden continues her two-part series of columns on a criminal appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The defendants -- animal rights activists from Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC)'s New Jersey and Seattle branches, and SHAC itself -- were prosecuted for conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA). As Hilden explains, the appeal split the panel 2-1, with the dissenting judge expressing serious concern about the First Amendment and due process issues that the application of the AEPA raised. Here, in Part Two of the series, Hilden argues that the dissenting judge was correct, and the defendants' constitutional challenge was meritorious. View more Commentary »