Motion to dismiss maryland free#

The firm had already helped Energy Transfer’s subsidiary, Dakota Access LLC, defend the pipeline’s continued construction against separate legal challenges brought by local tribal leadership in 2016. In July 2023, Gibson Dunn began representing Energy Transfer in a case filed in North Dakota against Greenpeace US and individuals who protested against the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. But that’s exactly what it’s now doing on behalf of pipeline company Energy Transfer, in a landmark lawsuit intended to silence the fossil fuel industry’s critics.

Motion to dismiss maryland free#

The firm is not historically known for arguing against free speech rights. Federal Election Commission, which opened the floodgates to dark money in U.S. And his colleague Ted Olson argued and won the most seminal corporate free speech case of the last 20 years, Citizens United v. Ted Boutrous, the lead lawyer representing Chevron in its defense against climate liability cases, famously represented CNN reporter Jim Acosta when he was thrown out of the White House press room by former President Donald Trump. But the firm is perhaps even better known for its First Amendment record. Gibson Dunn is a favorite firm of fossil fuel companies - aside from Chevron, it has represented a veritable “who’s who” of the industry, including the American Petroleum Institute, Energy Transfer, Enbridge, ConocoPhillips, Occidental, and many more. The e-book gives you all the tools and tricks our reporting team uses to scrutinize power. Score a copy of our Citizens’ Guide to Following the Money and Holding the Powerful Accountable, free with a paid subscription. “We would live in a very different and far more dangerous and less prosperous society, which is why in general the courts have been underwhelmed by these types of arguments.” “Under that logic, companies could lie to us about anything, and just say ‘because we think it’s political, because we think it’s important to policy, then we get to lie about it,’” said Amanda Shanor, an assistant professor and First Amendment scholar at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “The First Amendment bars tort liability based on speech attempting to influence public support for climate policies,” reads one motion, authored by Gibson Dunn and local counsel in October 2023, to dismiss a case that the state of New Jersey brought against Chevron and other oil majors. attorney Steven Donziger and his Ecuadorian plaintiffs of racketeering after they defeated Chevron in Ecuador’s courts.)Īs the evidence of Big Oil’s long-standing campaigns of climate denial piles up, and the cases inch closer to trial, the firm is deploying a defense that seeks to protect its clients’ ability to mislead the public.Ĭhevron and other oil companies’ statements about climate change, Gibson Dunn has argued, constitute First Amendment protected “political speech” - or speech concerning public opinion and policy. (You may also recognize Gibson Dunn as the firm that accused U.S. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represents oil giant Chevron in lawsuits brought by dozens of state and local governments to hold the company accountable for deceiving consumers and the public about its products’ central role in climate change. Now, one of the industry’s preferred law firms - which has long been recognized for its defense of the First Amendment - is arguing both sides of this issue in court.

įor years, the fossil fuel industry has maintained that the First Amendment protects its right to mislead the public about the climate crisis, but that criticism and protest of its operations violates the law. Editor’s note: This piece was originally co-published by ExxonKnews, a newsletter covering climate accountability and a project of the Center for Climate Integrity, and DeSmog.