{"id":25063,"date":"2025-03-31T16:51:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T16:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25063"},"modified":"2025-03-31T17:27:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T17:27:44","slug":"a-quarter-billion-dollars-for-defamation-inside-greenpeaces-huge-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25063","title":{"rendered":"A Quarter-Billion Dollars for Defamation: Inside Greenpeace\u2019s Huge Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A pipeline company\u2019s lawsuit against the environmental group could chill free speech, experts said. First Amendment issues are likely to figure prominently in an appeal.<\/p>\n

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When the environmental group Greenpeace lost a nearly $670 million verdict this month over its role in oil pipeline protests, a quarter-billion dollars of the damages were awarded not for the actual demonstrations, but for defaming the pipeline\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n

The costly verdict<\/a> has raised alarm among activist organizations as well as some First Amendment experts, who said the lawsuit and damage awards could deter free speech far beyond the environmental movement.<\/p>\n

The verdict \u201cwill send a chill down the spine of any nonprofit who wants to get involved in any political protest,\u201d said David D. Cole, a professor at Georgetown Law and former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. \u201cIf you\u2019re the Sierra Club, or the N.A.A.C.P., or the N.R.A., or an anti-abortion group, you\u2019re going to be very worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed by Energy Transfer in 2019, accused Greenpeace of masterminding an \u201cunlawful and violent scheme\u201d to harm the company\u2019s finances, employees and infrastructure and to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace countered that it had promoted peaceful protest and had played only a minor role in the demonstrations, which were led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe over concerns about its ancestral land and water supply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A key part of Energy Transfer\u2019s case relied on defamation claims. For example, the jury found that Greenpeace defamed the company by saying it had \u201cdamaged at least 380 sacred and cultural sites\u201d during pipeline work, the first of nine statements found defamatory.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace called Energy Transfer\u2019s lawsuit an attempt to muzzle the company\u2019s critics. \u201cThis case should alarm everyone, no matter their political inclinations,\u201d said Sushma <\/strong>Raman, interim executive director of Greenpeace USA. \u201cWe should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A pipeline company\u2019s lawsuit against the environmental group could chill free speech, experts said. First Amendment issues are likely to figure prominently in an appeal.When the environmental group Greenpeace lost a nearly $670 million verdict this month over its role in oil pipeline protests, a quarter-billion dollars of the damages were awarded not for the actual demonstrations, but for defaming the pipeline\u2019s owner.The costly verdict has raised alarm among activist organizations as well as some First Amendment experts, who said the lawsuit and damage awards could deter free speech far beyond the environmental movement.The verdict \u201cwill send a chill down the spine of any nonprofit who wants to get involved in any political protest,\u201d said David D. Cole, a professor at Georgetown Law and former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. \u201cIf you\u2019re the Sierra Club, or the N.A.A.C.P., or the N.R.A., or an anti-abortion group, you\u2019re going to be very worried.\u201dThe lawsuit, filed by Energy Transfer in 2019, accused Greenpeace of masterminding an \u201cunlawful and violent scheme\u201d to harm the company\u2019s finances, employees and infrastructure and to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace countered that it had promoted peaceful protest and had played only a minor role in the demonstrations, which were led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe over concerns about its ancestral land and water supply.A key part of Energy Transfer\u2019s case relied on defamation claims. For example, the jury found that Greenpeace defamed the company by saying it had \u201cdamaged at least 380 sacred and cultural sites\u201d during pipeline work, the first of nine statements found defamatory.Greenpeace called Energy Transfer\u2019s lawsuit an attempt to muzzle the company\u2019s critics. \u201cThis case should alarm everyone, no matter their political inclinations,\u201d said Sushma Raman, interim executive director of Greenpeace USA. \u201cWe should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25065,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25063"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25066,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25063\/revisions\/25066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}