North Dakota Supreme Court will not rehear case establishing DAPL documents as public record

BISMARCK — The North Dakota Supreme Court docket swatted down a last-gasp effort by the builders of the Dakota Entry Pipeline to maintain inside paperwork out of the general public eye.

The excessive court docket dominated in late April that

five-year-old paperwork

linked to a partnership between Dakota Entry Pipeline operator Vitality Switch and a personal safety agency are public report.

Lower than a month later, justices rejected Vitality Switch’s request for a rehearing of the case. Petitions for rehearings are hardly ever accredited.

The Supreme Court docket’s April determination upheld a district court docket ruling that rejected an effort by Vitality Switch to maintain non-public 16,000 paperwork pertaining to a partnership fashioned with safety contractor TigerSwan in the course of the pipeline protests close to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in 2016 and 2017.

Within the unanimous determination, the Supreme Court docket affirmed that Vitality Switch didn’t current any reliable exemptions that will maintain the trove of paperwork from being a public report.

First Look, the writer of nonprofit information outlet The Intercept, sued a state regulatory board to entry the data. Discussion board Communications Firm, which owns Discussion board Information Service, joined First Look with an amicus transient in Vitality Switch’s case earlier than the North Dakota Supreme Court docket.

A spokesperson for Vitality Switch didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.