Category: Updates

On July 24th, Ruby Montoya and Jessica Reznicek publicly explained how and why they had disrupted construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline for months. They detailed how they targeted pipeline infrastructure, and stated: “[C]ourts and public officials allowed these corporations to steal permissions from landowners and brutalize the land, water, and people. Our conclusion is that the system is broken and it is up to us as a individuals to take peaceful action and remedy it, and this we did, out of necessity… We are speaking publicly to empower others to act boldly, with purity of heart, to dismantle the infrastructures which deny us our rights to water, land and liberty. We as civilians have seen the repeated failures of the government and it is our duty to act with responsibility and integrity, risking our own liberty for the sovereignty of us all.” Ruby and Jessica plan to represent themselves in their upcoming court case. Climate Defense Project is serving as stand-by counsel and providing legal support along with attorney Bill Quigley. You can read the full statement, and learn how to support, at http://www.mississippistand.com/.

From our allies at Climate Direct Action: June 23, 2017 Contact: Jay O’Hara 7743130881 oharjo@gmail.com Sabotage Charge Dropped; Ward and Supporters Vow to Overturn His One Remaining Conviction [Mt. Vernon, Washington — June 23, 2017]  Climate activist Ken Ward, the “valve turner” who was arrested and prosecuted for closing the emergency valve on an oil sands...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 7, 2017 Contact: Kelsey Skaggs Climate Defense Project (510) 883-3118 kelsey@climatedefenseproject.org Mount Vernon, WA — Following controversial court rulings restricting his right to present a defense, climate activist Ken Ward received a split verdict today in a trial in Skagit County, Washington. Mr. Ward was found guilty of burglary, a Class...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 10, 2017 Contact: Kelsey Skaggs Climate Defense Project (510) 883-3118 kelsey@climatedefenseproject.org Jay O’Hara Climate Disobedience Center (774) 313-0881 jay@climatedisobedience.org Mount Vernon, WA — A Washington state judge has ruled that Ken Ward, a climate activist who who helped to temporarily block the flow of tar sands oil from Canada to the...

On March 4, as part of a panel discussion at the University of Oregon School of Law’s annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, CDP Co-Founder and Executive Director Kelsey Skaggs spoke about the necessity defense and its applicability to climate activism. The discussion — which also featured law professors Tom Lininger and Lance Long, activist...

CDP has just published the Political Necessity Defense Jurisdiction Guide, a comprehensive resource on the necessity defense and its application to political protest. The necessity defense is an age-old legal doctrine that lets individuals off the hook for breaking the law in the public interest. In recent decades, necessity defenses have been successfully used by...

On February 14, the Climate Defense Project (CDP) filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in State v. Brockway, the case of the Delta 5 climate activists who blocked a crude oil train in Bellingham, Washington in 2014. The CDP brief argues that the Delta 5 protest was necessary — and that the trial court...

CLIMATE DEFENSE PROJECT AND CIVIL LIBERTIES DEFENSE CENTER PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 1, 2017 Contact: Lauren Regan, 541.687.9180 PIPELINE PROTESTER TRIAL ENDS WITH HUNG JURY IN VICTORY FOR CLIMATE MOVEMENT Mount Vernon, WA — In a victory for the climate movement, a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the trial of...