Protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, Nov 15, 2016. San Francisco. The protests are now the subject of a lawsuit by the pipeline company against Greenpeace. Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, Creative Commons.
The right to protest is clearly embedded in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which says in part: “Congress shall make no law … respecting the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This right to assemble and protest has been strongly reinforced by US courts during many struggles over human rights in the United States, including for example the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and protests over the Vietnam war. The environmental movement is no exception, and a list of cases is found below.
The right to protest was on the line Feb, 24, 2025, when a North Dakota state court began hearing a lawsuit involving protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline — Energy Transfer Plaintiffs v Greenpeace.
The Texas pipeline company’s lawsuit accuses Greenpeace of libel, trespassing and vandalism, saying that the lawsuit isn’t about free speech but about criminal behavior. Even so, defamation is, in fact, the key issue in the lawsuit.
Greenpeace responded that the lawsuit “… seeks to create new legal precedents that would quell the climate justice movement’s ability to organize, protest, and express dissent.”
