Court Rejects Challenge To Indiana's Right To Farm Act

NDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals has rejected a constitutional challenge to the state's Right to Farm Act that was part of two families' lawsuit alleging that a large hog farm deprived them of their property rights.

The families in Hendricks County, just west of Indianapolis, had accused a neighboring 8,000-head concentrated animal feeding operation of nuisance, negligence and trespass, arguing that the farm deprived them of their property rights and harmed the value of their properties.

The families' complaint also argued that Indiana's Right to Farm Act is unconstitutional.

But The Indiana Lawyer reports that an appeals court panel on Monday unanimously rejected the families' challenge.

Judge Robert Altice wrote in part that the state's Right to Farm Act "is rational and falls comfortably within the legislature's legitimate constitutional authority."