DISCLAIMER: The following unofficial case summaries are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
201538P.pdf 08/09/2021 Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Jonathan Vaught
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 20-1538
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Central
[PUBLISHED] [Colloton, Author, with Wollman and Shepherd, Circuit Judges]
Civil case. Plaintiffs alleged they intended to send undercover
investigators into defendant Peco's chicken slaughterhouse and defendant
Vaught's pig farm to undercover possible violations and that Ark. Code
Ann. Sec. 16-118-13, which prohibits a person who knowingly gains access
to a nonpublic area of a commercial property from engaging in acts that
exceed that person's authority, prevented them from doing so and thereby
violated their First Amendment free speech rights; in this action they
sought an order that would prevent the defendants from bringing a civil
suit against them under the Arkansas statue; the district dismissed the
action for lack of Article III standing. Reversed, as plaintiffs'
complaint adequately alleged the elements of Article III standing; the
complaint alleged plaintiffs would create and disseminate information that
qualified as First Amendment speech, that the proposed conduct would
violate the Arkansas statute and that they faced a credible threat of
enforcement. Judge Shepherd, dissenting.