Protecting the Right to Protest

Throughout my 30 years as an environmental activist, I’ve seen more crackdowns on peaceful protestors than I can count. But as the climate crisis deepens, and the voices of those demanding solutions grow louder, I’m more alarmed by the silencing of activists than ever before. In each corner of the country, I know courageous people whose lives have been completely upended for standing up and speaking out about environmental injustices.

In South Dakota, Indigenous activist Nick Tilsen recently faced the threat of 17 years in prison after leading a peaceful protest demanding the return of illegally seized Lakota territory known as the Black Hills—to restore Native rights and protect the lands from further extraction.

In West Virginia, community organizer Alex McKinnon (a pseudonym) was one of dozens of activists sued by a group of fossil fuel corporations for protesting a 300-mile multibillion-dollar pipeline set to cut through the Appalachian Trail.

And in Washington, D.C., attorney Deepa Padmanabha has spent the last seven years defending the legacy environmental nonprofit Greenpeace from a $300 million lawsuit for supporting Standing Rock, the Indigenous-led movement to stop Dakota Access Pipeline.

Nick, Alex and Deepa are very different people: different backgrounds, living in different places and working for different causes. But they have something important in common: Each exercised their First Amendment right to free speech and peaceful protest. And each faced crushing legal consequences for doing so.