A Minnesota prosecutor voluntarily dismissed felony charges against the Four Necessity Valve Turners today. The four climate activists shut down an oil pipeline in Northern Minnesota in February 2019. The prosecutor wrote that there was “insufficient evidence” to prove that the defendants intended to damage the pipeline. The activists still face trial on misdemeanor charges;...
CDP has joined over 50 civil society organizations in signing a statement that condemns the use of unlawful tactics and excessive force by unidentified federal officers in Portland, Oregon, who were deployed to quell ongoing protests for racial justice. The statement was authored by Defending Rights and Dissent and the National Coalition Against Censorship. Read...
CDP staff attorney Ted Hamilton delivered a talk to the Columbia University Center for Climate Change Law as part of its Summer Speaker Series. His remarks focused on CDP’s work to promote the climate necessity defense and on recent advances in climate activist legal defense across the country.
CDP Executive Director Kelsey Skaggs gave the opening keynote at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Bar Association, which was held online. The theme of the conference was Making A Difference: Lawyers in Service to Clients, Communities, and the Profession.
Alice Cherry, CDP Co-Founder and Staff Attorney, was interviewed on Portland-based radio station KBOO last week, as part of a segment called Left and the Law. Alice discussed the climate necessity defense, upcoming cases, and the recent Ninth Circuit opinion in the youth lawsuit against the federal government, Juliana v. United States. You can listen to...
Climate Defense Project co-founder and staff attorney Ted Hamilton gave a talk on the climate necessity defense on January 21 at Yale Law School. The lecture was part of the Law, Ethics, and Animals Program; you can view a video here.
On behalf of 122 law professors, CDP filed today a friend-of-court brief in support of George Taylor, a reverend and member of Veterans for Peace who was involved in a protest against the transport of crude oil by trains in downtown Spokane, WA. Mr. Taylor is appealing the reversal of a trial court ruling granting his...
Fort Benton, MT — Leonard Higgins and his attorneys are appealing his conviction for a protest that shut down the flow of Canadian tar sands oil into the United States. The appeal focuses on the court’s denial of Mr. Higgins’ right to present a complete defense. Prior to trial, in a violation of Mr. Higgins’ constitutional...
CDP Co-Founder and Staff Attorney Alice Cherry was recognized in the 2019 Straubel Leadership Awards.
The Washington Supreme Court has declined to review a ruling by the state’s Court of Appeals upholding the right of CDP client Ken Ward to present a necessity defense at trial. The Court of Appeals ruling, issued in April of this year, had overturned a previous decision by the trial court to bar all evidence...
