The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act has been introduced and reintroduced in Congress for years, always floundering, and this year it looks like industry groups are making a full-court press to get the draconian law passed. The Senate and House Judiciary committees may markup the bills as soon as next week.
The National Association for Biomedical Research took out a full-page ad in Roll Call, a newspaper covering Capitol Hill that is read daily by Congressional staff and many members of Congress. It includes a photo a black-and-white photo of a vandalized office, with “Your home is next” spray painted on a wall (or seemingly spray painted–I don’t know if this is a photograph or another PR stunt).
The threat is growing and is so serious the FBI has classified these extremists as one of the most serious domestic terrorist threats in the U.S. today. That’s why we urge you to support legislation designed to counteract the increasingly violent activity aimed at shutting down research in this country.
Under a section of small print called “What the AETA Does,” the final bullet is: “Expressly protects everyone’s First Amendment right to protest.”
The abrupt, dismissive wording of this, and the fact that it looks like it was tacked on as an afterthought, made me laugh out loud.
The legislation has language stating: “Nothing in this section shall be construe to prohibit any expressive conduct (including peaceful picketing or other peaceful demonstration) protected from legal prohibition by the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
Well, how very kind of lawmakers and industry groups to remind everyone that there is still a First Amendment. But that language doesn’t “expressly protect everyone’s First Amendment right to protest,” as NABR says, because that shouldn’t have to be expressed. Making a notation like that in federal legislation is the equivalent of lawmakers admitting that the language is vague and overly broad, and can be construed as violating basic constitutional rights. They’re trying to cover their butts.
The truth is that this bill is broad, so vague, that it can wrap up activity like undercover investigations and whistle blowing. On top of that, the bill spells out penalties for
an offense involving exclusively a nonviolent physical obstruction of an animal enterprise or a business having a connection to, or relationship with, an animal enterprise, that may result in loss of profits but does not result in bodily injury or death or property damage or loss
In other words, a terrorism law includes nonviolent civil disobedience. And much, much more.