Equal Justice Alliance: AETA - Where Do We Go from Here?
Monday, November 27th, 2006
The following letter has been circulating on animal rights/welfare listservs, and is also available on the Equal Justice Alliance’s website.
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AETA - Where Do We Go from Here?
Source: Equal Justice Alliance
Dear fellow animal activist,
As you are well aware by now, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA, S. 3880) passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent in September. It passed the U.S. House of Representatives on November 13th because we were outmaneuvered by the Republican leadership of the House Judiciary Committee. And now the bill has been signed into law by President Bush. We appreciate your massive outpouring of e-mails and phone calls to Congress. We learned valuable lessons from our lobbying experience. For us, this is a new beginning.
What We Are Doing
We have resolved that Equal Justice Alliance must continue its mission along three tracks:
* To protect equal justice and freedom of speech for animal and other social justice advocates by working to repeal AETA and to prevent future repressive legislation;
* To provide an alternative Congressional watchdog function;
* To promote an atmosphere of respect for animal advocacy within Congress and Justice Department.
We plan to pursue three ways of neutralizing AETA:
* By convincing federal district attorneys not to prosecute under AETA because the law is too broad and vague to make it through the courts;
* By convincing federal courts to dismiss a test case because the law is too broad and vague;
* By convincing Congress that the law is unworkable, unconstitutional, and should be repealed.
The following letter has been circulating on animal rights/welfare listservs, and is also available on the Equal Justice Alliance’s website.
—————–
AETA - Where Do We Go from Here?
Source: Equal Justice Alliance
Dear fellow animal activist,
As you are well aware by now, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA, S. 3880) passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent in September. It passed the U.S. House of Representatives on November 13th because we were outmaneuvered by the Republican leadership of the House Judiciary Committee. And now the bill has been signed into law by President Bush. We appreciate your massive outpouring of e-mails and phone calls to Congress. We learned valuable lessons from our lobbying experience. For us, this is a new beginning.
What We Are Doing
We have resolved that Equal Justice Alliance must continue its mission along three tracks:
* To protect equal justice and freedom of speech for animal and other social justice advocates by working to repeal AETA and to prevent future repressive legislation;
* To provide an alternative Congressional watchdog function;
* To promote an atmosphere of respect for animal advocacy within Congress and Justice Department.
We plan to pursue three ways of neutralizing AETA:
* By convincing federal district attorneys not to prosecute under AETA because the law is too broad and vague to make it through the courts;
* By convincing federal courts to dismiss a test case because the law is too broad and vague;
* By convincing Congress that the law is unworkable, unconstitutional, and should be repealed.
