DAPL UPDATE:
Our legal work and advocacy on behalf of the water protectors is ongoing. Please continue to check the blog, Facebook, and Twitter for important updates.
A team of organizers and lawyers from the ACLU of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and Wyoming have been in Standing Rock to act as legal observers and fact finders. Other organizations and groups are on the ground and we’re coordinating our efforts to ensure that people stay safe at DAPL, and know their rights when protesting.
We requested that the Department of Justice investigate possible violations of federal laws and the U.S. Constitution by law enforcement in their responses to those individuals peacefully assembled around the Dakota Access Pipeline. We are also asking that the Department immediately suspend law enforcement’s use of any federally resourced military weapons and equipment as it determines whether constitutional and federal law violations have occurred.
We are representing a pipeline protester in a civil suit filed against him and other protesters by the pipeline company.
We submitted open records requests to the Morton County Sheriff’s Dept. and ND Highway Patrol to determine if there are incidents of racial profiling in policing and surveillance technologies in use to spy on and track protesters and to help us prepare a civil lawsuit against the Morton County Sheriff’s Office and the state of North Dakota for First and Fourteenth Amendment violations. It was denied and we’re currently appealing.
Here's what you can do to help:
- Call North Dakota Governor Dalrymple at 701-328-2200 and tell him to stand down the aggressive DAPL police response
- Sign our petition to tell the DOJ to demilitarize the police at Standing Rock
- Donate to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s DAPL Donation Fund
- Contact your state and federal representatives to speak out against the militarized police response to nonviolent protesters
