BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge has set a Monday deadline for the environmental entity Earth First to explain what he says appears to be discrepancies in its argument that it can’t be sued for opposing the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
The Center for Constitutional Rights maintains Earth First is an unstructured social movement or philosophy, similar to Black Lives Matter, and can’t be sued. However, U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson says Earth First has been a listed plaintiff in three federal lawsuits in the 1980s and 1990s, involving a water project in Arizona, a wilderness area in Oregon and a New Mexico canyon important to American Indians.
“If Earth First can sue, it seems to me that it is subject to being sued,” Wilson said in a March 22 order.
Center attorney Pamela Spees did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment Friday.
Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners in August sued Earth First, Greenpeace and BankTrack for up to $1 billion, alleging they disseminated false and misleading information about the $3.8 billion pipeline that’s now moving oil from North Dakota to Illinois, and instigated violent protests while the pipeline was under construction.