An attorney for seven animal owners in Ohio says they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court refused to rehear the owners' challenge to the state's law on dangerous, wild animals.
The owners sued the state over the regulations in November 2012, arguing that the law violates their free speech and free association rights. A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld the law in March. The owners had asked the full appeals court to review the matter, but on Thursday the court denied their request for an "en banc" rehearing. A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Agriculture says it has little reason to believe that the high court would find anything different than the lower courts.