PETA Sues NIH, NIMH in Groundbreaking First Amendment Lawsuit

PETA pushed the legal envelope with a groundbreaking First Amendment lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health, seeking to enforce its First Amendment right to receive communications from willing speakers—here, primates imprisoned in the government laboratory of experimenter Elisabeth Murray. The suit came after both federal agencies refused PETA’s request for access to a live-streamed audiovisual feed of the monkeys in Murray’s laboratory to receive the macaques’ communications, including expressions of frustration. No lawsuit has ever tried to enforce the constitutional right to receive communications from animals. PETA asked the court to declare that NIH’s refusal to allow the requested access violates the First Amendment, and to require the agencies to provide constitutionally sufficient methods for PETA to receive the monkeys’ communications.