These states want to make planning a pipeline protest a crime

[turbinetree]

A slew of proposed bills would impose harsh penalties for planning to trespass near energy infrastructure.

NATASHA GEILING APR 16, 2018, 8:00 AM

As pipeline protests continue to delay and, sometimes, stop energy projects in their tracks, the fossil fuel industry and Republican lawmakers are looking for new ways to clamp down on environmental protest.

In the last few years, state lawmakers across the country have proposed bills that would impose harsh penalties on environmental protest, particularly protests aimed at delaying pipeline construction or shutting down existing pipeline infrastructure. In energy-rich states like Oklahoma and North Dakota, lawmakers have successfully passed bills prohibiting certain kinds of protest, from protests that block highways or traffic to protests that trespass onto property containing energy infrastructure.

But a new crop of bills proposed in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota — all states with controversial pipeline projects currently under consideration — take the criminalization of protest one step further.

https://thinkprogress.org/pipeline-protest-criminal-conspiracy-bd67475b7504/

Maybe these state legislature assholes should have the 1st Amendment of the Constitution thrown at them

Fuck these right wing zelaots...................

[SWBTATTReg]

1. These laws do seem to infringe upon first amendment rights...

I think it will be a matter of time before one of these types of laws is challenged in state court, etc., and then finally upwards to the Supreme Court of the US where it should be rejected as unconstitutional. Unfortunately this will take time (years) and money, and what's the sad fact about it, they (the repugs) know this but went ahead and passed these pieces of unconstitutional legislation anyway, just to (1) make a statement and (2) to get something on the books anyway despite infringing on Americans' constitutional rights.