North Carolina's so-called ag-gag law is in the legal crosshairs. Activists with groups backing government accountability, food safety, and animal rights lodged a federal lawsuit Wednesday in a bid to block enforcement of the measure that became law January 1.

Further Reading There are laws making it illegal to collect data on open land

The lawsuit follows challenges to similar anti-speech laws in Idaho and Wyoming.

Laws in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, and Utah are backed by big agricultural entities and are designed to cover up unsafe or illegal farming practices. Activists said that the North Carolina measure, which was approved over the governor's veto, is perhaps the most restrictive and could bar undercover investigations of all private entities, including nursing homes and daycare centers.

"The Anti-Sunshine Law's legislative history confirms that the statute's aim is to keep whistleblowers from exposing employers' and property owners' hidden conduct to the public," according to the lawsuit. "In the words of one of the bill's supporters, the law's goal is to allow employers and property owners to engage in activities of public concern without fear of an 'expose.'"

Gov. Pat McCrory vetoed the bill in May. State lawmakers, however, overrode his veto.

"I am concerned that subjecting these employees to potential civil penalties will create an environment that discourages them from reporting illegal activities," he said.

According to a legislative summary, the bill provides for civil damages of up to $5,000 daily per violation. Among them, the violations include:

An employee who enters the nonpublic areas of an employer's premises for a reason other than a bona fide intent of seeking or holding employment or doing business with the employer and, without authorization, captures or removes the employer's data or any other documents for the purpose of using the information to breach the person's duty of loyalty to the employer. An employee who enters the nonpublic areas of an employer's premises for a reason other than a bona fide intent of seeking or holding employment or doing business with the employer and, without authorization, intentionally creates or produces an image or sound occurring within an employer's premises and uses the recording to breach the person's duty of loyalty to the employer. Knowingly or intentionally placing on the employer's premises an unattended camera or electronic surveillance device and using that device to record images or data.

The federal court suit was brought by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; Center for Food Safety; Animal Legal Defense Fund; Farm Sanctuary, Food & Water Watch; and Government Accountability Project.

Five months ago, Idaho's pro-agribusiness law that barred the secret recording of livestock was deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge who ruled that the so-called "ag gag" law violated the First Amendment. Idaho's law carried a maximum one-year jail penalty and up to a $5,000 fine for first offenders for filming or audio recording at a farm without the owner's consent.

Wyoming's legislation is also facing a federal lawsuit, which is ongoing. Wyoming lawmakers adopted legislation making it illegal to gather data on open space—such as performing water quality tests or taking photographs—for the purpose of reporting to the government harmful farming practices, environmental degradation, or other ills.

The Wyoming legislation forbids regulators from even acting upon evidence of wrongdoing if the data was gathered without a landowners' permission, even if the data was gathered on public land. And it gives private landowners fodder to sue for trespassing. The legislation was crafted after the Western Watersheds Project collected data that revealed water pollution and federal grazing violations. Those revelations prompted Wyoming regulators to include three streams on a list of water bodies violating state environmental quality standards.