By: Mary Steurer
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing a federal judge’s decision to award North Dakota $28 million in damages for the executive branch’s response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
The case now heads to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals for review.
Thousands traveled to south-central North Dakota to protest the construction of the oil pipeline underneath the Missouri River’s Lake Oahe reservoir alongside the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in 2016 and 2017. The tribe says the pipeline poses serious threats to the environment, intrudes upon Native territory and has desecrated sacred cultural sites.
The main demonstration camp was located on land managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The state filed suit in 2019 against the federal government, arguing that the Corps unlawfully allowed, and at some times encouraged, protesters to use its land at the state’s expense.
The case went to trial in February 2024. The trial lasted four weeks and included witness testimony from former North Dakota governors Doug Burgum and Jack Dalrymple, Indigenous activists, law enforcement officials and others.
In an April ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Dan Traynor sided with North Dakota’s claims, finding the Army Corps at fault for negligence, public nuisance and civil trespass claims.
The executive branch has disputed North Dakota’s accusations and maintains it did the best it could to manage an unpredictable situation.
The U.S. government must file its initial arguments for appeal by Aug. 15, the docket states.
North Dakota sought to recoup $38 million from the federal government, though Traynor lowered this amount to $28 million since the U.S. Department of Justice previously gave the state $10 million as compensation for the protests.
The state can’t get any of the money until the appeals process wraps up, according to the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget. The award would also have to survive review by other judges.
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