Attorney responds to judge demand in Dakota Access lawsuit

BISMARCK, N.D. – An attorney with the Center for constitutional Rights says that being listed as a plaintiff in decades-old lawsuits doesn’t mean Earth First can be sued for opposing the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Pamela Spees is responding to a federal judge who demanded she explain what appear to be discrepancies in the centre’s argument that Earth First is an unstructured social movement and can’t be sued by Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners.

Judge Billy Roy Wilson pointed out that Earth First was a listed plaintiff in three lawsuits in the 1980s and 1990s, and said “If Earth First can sue, it seems to me that it is subject to being sued.”

Spees says that just because Earth First was listed as a plaintiff doesn’t mean it actually had that legal right.