Argument in U.S.A. v. Buddenberg

Date 

Add to My Calendar Monday, July 13, 2009 12:00am

Location 

Join CCR cooperating attorney Matthew Strugar as he argues that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) is unconstitutional before the United States District Court, Northern District of California in San Jose, CA.

There will be a demonstration organized by the AETA Support Committee following the oral argument.

U.S.A. v. Buddenberg is a federal prosecution of four animal rights activists in California for conspiracy to commit animal enterprise terrorism. On February 19th and 20th, the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI arrested four animal rights activists as “terrorists.” The indictment against Joseph Buddenberg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope and Adriana Stumpo (the AETA 4) charges them with conduct including protesting, chalking the sidewalk, chanting and leafleting –, and the alleged use of “the Internet to find information on bio-medical researchers.” These acts are all protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The indictment was made possible because of a little known law called the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). Passed by Congress in November, the AETA is aimed at suppressing speech and advocacy by criminalizing First Amendment-protected activities such as protests, boycotts, picketing and whistleblowing. It targets animal rights activists, but includes language so broad and vague it could be used to prosecute labor activists who organize a successful boycott of Wal-Mart, or union folks who picket a university cafeteria.

Pushed through Congress by a powerful lobby of corporations and research institutions, the AETA is an unconstitutional law, because it criminalizes a broad swath of protected First Amendment activities and is so unclear as to fail to give people notice of whether or not their conduct is lawful. On this basis, CCR and the defense team have asked the Court to strike down the AETA as unconstitutional.

Last modified 

July 10, 2009