SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal judge struck down a Utah law banning secret filming at farm and livestock facilities Friday as an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights.

U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby wrote in his ruling that the law appears tailored toward preventing undercover animal-rights investigators from exposing abuses at agricultural facilities.

Shelby said the state does have an interest in protecting the agricultural industry and a variety of ways to do it.

"Suppressing broad swaths of protected speech without justification, however, is not one of them," he wrote.

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