House Dems Target Big Oil for ‘Weaponizing’ Law Against Protesters to Block Climate Action
Civil libertarians applauded Wednesday as a U.S. congressional committee held a hearing to “examine how the fossil fuel industry is weaponizing the law to stifle First Amendment-protected speech” and thwart climate action.
At issue during the hearing were strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), one advocacy group described as “an all-too-common tool for intimidating and silencing criticism through expensive, baseless legal proceedings.”
Democratic lawmakers, activists, and community leaders explained during the hearing how the fossil fuel industry “uses SLAPPs to target environmental activists and nonprofits to deter them from speaking out against proposed fossil fuel pipelines and other projects that contribute to climate change.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, announced plans to introduce legislation to deter SLAPPs.
“Wealthy and powerful corporate entities are… dragging citizens and public interest opponents through meritless but protracted and expensive litigation to expose anyone who dares stand up to them to financial and personal ruin,” Raskin said during his opening remarks.
“It is crucial that Congress protect the rights of American citizens and civic groups to engage in lawful political protest and organizing without having to face ruinously expensive and meritless retaliatory litigation,” he added.
Anne White Hat, a Sicangu Lakota Indigenous woman who has led anti-fossil fuel struggles from Standing Rock to Louisiana, is one of 16 activists who faced up to five years in prison for their activism against the Bayou Bridge pipeline.
Last year, a local district attorney threw out the charges against the activists and vowed to never prosecute them under the state’s critical infrastructure law, a tool used by oil-producing states like Texas and Oklahoma to deter protests.
On Monday, Common Dreams reported that the fossil fuel industry has targeted more than 150 climate activists and community leaders in recent years with SLAPPs lawsuits and other forms of “judicial harassment,” according to a report published by the legal advocacy group EarthRights International.
For activists caught up in SLAPP litigation, legal costs can be crushing for individuals and small groups as cases drag on for years.
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
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