Victory! Court Rules MN Sheriff’s Blockade of Line 3 Water Protector Camp Was Illegal and Bars Ongoing Efforts to Obstruct Access

A Minnesota court issued a ruling protecting an Indigenous-led camp of Line 3 opponents from Hubbard County’s unlawful blockades and targeted harassment. This victory on the part of steadfast frontline climate justice activists is part of the crucial legal fight-back against oppressive police tactics as they place their bodies on the line to defend the planet.

The ruling comes after months of litigation on behalf of Indigenous water protectors, including Tara Houska and Winona LaDuke, and a successful temporary restraining order against Hubbard County, Sheriff Cory Aukes, and the local land commissioner in northern Minnesota for unlawfully blocking access to Giniw Collective’s Line 3 Camp Namewag in 2021.

Now the battle against Line 3 is being fought in courtrooms across northern Minnesota as we defend the courageous water protectors in the crosshairs of the prosecutors and police who are fueled by millions of Enbridge’s dollars.

Despite their constitutional right to protest, hundreds of water protectors have been falsely charged and arrested, many of whom are Indigenous women. The Center for Protest Law and Litigation has been supporting water protectors as they face trumped up criminal charges for lawfully opposing the destruction of their land. This intense fight has resulted in important victories, including the dismissal of dozens of cases related to the illegal blockade by police of a water protector camp, as well as the dismissal of outrageous felony theft charges leveled against water protectors.  

CPLL is not only directly representing water protectors but has helped facilitate a collaborative network of attorneys through funding and coordination. And it’s working. Just listen to attorney Joshua Preston, who has successfully defended dozens of water protectors over the past year.

The legal battle is on many fronts. While the CPLL is supporting these ongoing criminal defenses, we’re also bringing litigation in the court, representing Tara Houska, Winona LaDuke and others, to get a permanent injunction so that the police can never again blockade the Indigenous-led water protector camp we are defending. We’re also digging deep into investigating Enbridge’s privatization of the public police forces and are preparing an extensive challenge to this outrageous violation of constitutional rights that threatens to become a model nationwide for suppression of opposition to corporate destruction of our land and water.

The battle is in the courtroom.

Brave water protectors have put their bodies on the line tirelessly and peacefully protesting the construction of the Line 3 pipeline, which will destroy Indigenous land, resources, and the environment. Hear one water protector, Siihasin, share why this fight matters.

EXPOSED: Minnesota Prosecutor sought Enbridge funding to prosecute Water Protectors at Line 3

 

The Center for Protest Law & Litigation has obtained documents through our ongoing investigation showing that Jonathan Frieden, the lead prosecutor in Hubbard County, Minnesota, who is seeking to jail hundreds of peaceful Line 3 water protectors, sought Enbridge pipeline corporation’s money to fund his prosecutions.

We are releasing the documents here showing an initial bill submitted to the Public Safety Escrow Trust, and his outrage when he didn't get what he wanted. The expectation of funding incentivized the wrongful charging of hundreds. View documents here.

Support the Legal Efforts: Line 3 Rapid Response

The Center for Protest Law and Litigation is supporting and administering a funding pool to subsidize and offset legal costs on a funds-available basis for defense of civil and human rights of persons arrested while exercising their First Amendment rights in opposition to Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline.

Front-line activists expressing peaceful opposition to Enbridge Corporation's pipeline corridor through untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples are facing arrest and deprivation of constitutional rights.

 

Communities need support

In addition to providing support for legal defense, the CPLL is also affirmatively challenging unconstitutional official and police efforts to deprive front-line activists, including Indigenous water protectors and non-native supporters, of their fundamental First Amendment rights to peaceful assembly, free speech, community educational activities, and religious practices.

Basic First Amendment rights are being deprived at the whim and direction of entities and officials, armed with the power of the state, serving essentially as private security of a private corporation whose profit interests lie in suppressing opposition to their activities.

We must come together to defend front-line activists and Indigenous communities against these powerful and corrupt interests.

Jane Fonda on the repression of Water Protectors and the legal challenge we are mounting to defend their constitutional and human rights

Water Protectors are facing intense repression from local Sheriffs' departments in Northern Minnesota who are being financially incentivized and paid to act against the opponents of Line 3 with huge sums of money flowing though the "Public Safety Escrow Trust" funded by the Enbridge Corporation.

This financial structure essentially privatizes public police forces to act in service to the private pecuniary interests of this foreign corporation against its political opponents and the Indigenous community; to stop and disrupt peaceful organizing and expression that would educate the larger community and national audience about the environmental devastation being caused by the Line 3 pipeline.

We have been fact finding on the ground at the site of Line 3 and are preparing the legal challenge to protect and advance Water Protectors' constitutional rights.

Please support the Center for Protest Law & Litigation.

We greatly appreciate your support in this crucial effort!

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