Minnesota judge: Blocking pipeline protest camp was wrong

PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — A choose in Minnesota has dominated that sheriff’s officers had no proper to dam entry to a camp arrange in opposition to the Enbridge Line 3 oil pipeline.

In an order issued Tuesday, Hubbard County District Decide Jana Austad dominated the pipeline protesters had been utilizing a non-public driveway, not a county path, to entry Camp Namewag close to Menahga.

In June 2021, Hubbard County Sheriff Cory Aukes served discover on American Indian activist Winona LaDuke and Tara Houska, who manages the location, that the highway to the camp was a county-owned path which might be barricaded and that those that drove on it will be arrested.

The blockade lasted about three days, in accordance with courtroom filings, after which was in place often after that. Sheriff’s deputies made a lot of arrests and blocked folks from bringing meals and water onto the property, in accordance with the civil grievance filed by LaDuke and Houska.

Austad ordered the sheriff to take down any notices prohibiting motorcar visitors on the driveway. She additionally voided the citations LaDuke and Houska got for driving on the roadway.

In her order, Austad wrote that the easement and driveway clearly had been linked to the camp, which might be landlocked with out them, and the county had no proper to dam the highway.

In 2018, LaDuke purchased a parcel of land close to Menahga and secured an easement to succeed in it throughout county-managed land, utilizing the prevailing driveway, the Star Tribune reported.

The 1,100-mile tar sands pipeline, which has lengthy been the goal of protests, went on line in October and carries heavy crude oil from Canada to Superior, Wisconsin.