Smithfield unit fights gag order

Calling it “unnecessary, unprecedented and unconstitutional,” the Murphy-Brown unit of Smithfield Foods is appealing a federal judge’s gag order related to the series of nuisance lawsuits filed against the hog producer in North Carolina, according to court documents. The gag order prevents anyone associated with the lawsuits, even neighbors, from speaking with a member of the press about the cases. More than two dozen such lawsuits have been filed against Smithfield in that state; the company has lost two of the cases so far.