Energy Transfer pipeline company and its billionaire Chairman Kelcy Warren have launched a baseless $300 million lawsuit against Greenpeace claiming the environmental group “defamed” the company by issuing statements in support of Indigenous-led protests at Standing Rock in 2016.

This trial is not primarily about Greenpeace; it’s far more about the broader right of Indigenous peoples to protect their ancestral lands and the right of the climate justice movement to protect the planet. Many legal scholars consider this to be a SLAPP case, meaning it’s designed to harass and intimidate rather than to resolve legitimate legal claims. SLAPP lawsuits violate the First Amendment to the Constitution. This case obviously should be dismissed outright, but Judge James Gion has showed his pro-corporate hand by refusing to do so.