"Protesters from New Orleans and Mississippi and a journalist from New York arrested during a protest against pipeline construction may continue their challenge of a Louisiana law carrying a possible five-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of trespassing in the area of a pipeline, a federal judge has ruled.
But landowners and environmental and community groups don’t have legal standing to sue the St. Martin Parish sheriff and district attorney over the law, Judge Robert Summerhays ruled.
Activists said they had landowners’ permission to protest on the land and have described the state law as part of a larger effort against environmental activism.
The law approved in 2018 added pipelines to the list of items considered “critical infrastructure” in Louisiana and changed trespassing on such property from a misdemeanor to a felony. It was passed during protests over construction of the 162-mile (260-kilometer) Bayou Bridge oil pipeline, which was completed the following year. ...
White Hat, Ramon Mejia, of Biloxi, Mississippi, and freelance journalist Karen Savage of New York were arrested on land fractionally owned by three people who unsuccessfully challenged a state law letting pipeline companies expropriate land but won $10,000 each from Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC."
Janet McConnaughey reports for the Associated Press May 7, 2021.
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