June 18, 2024

Energy Transfer Appeals to Minnesota Supreme Court After Unicorn Riot’s Win in Appeals Court

Continuing its three-plus year quest to have the courts force Unicorn Riot to hand over documents, oil company Energy Transfer filed an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court on June 5, 2024. This follows the May 6 ruling favoring Unicorn Riot by the Minnesota Court of Appeals that rejected ET’s attempts to obtain newsgathering materials through a subpoena. 

[Read Energy Transfer’s Petition for Review here (June 5, 2024)]

[Read the Minnesota Appeals Court Ruling here (May 6, 2024)]

So far we’ve spent $50,000 battling the energy company that owns Dakota Access Pipeline and we won the initial battle! Thanks so much to the 700-plus donations that helped us to do this. However, we still need your support to help recoup some of those costs and continue our battle as new costs are arising. Please donate today.

Recent Writings on the Case

Read a rundown of the case written in the Silha Center Bulletin (Winter/Spring 2024: Volume 29, No. 2)

Minnesota Lawyer — Media collective wins pipeline appeal - Court says group needn’t turn over newsgathering materials (May 13, 2024)

Unicorn Riot — Unicorn Riot Nets Resounding Win for Press Freedom Against Oil Corporation in Minnesota Appeals Court (May 10, 2024)

In 2021, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline started trying to force Unicorn Riot to hand over sensitive and privileged materials developed in the process of covering the controversial fracked oil pipeline and the massive, historic organized resistance against it. (See our full-length documentary, Black Snake Killaz [2017] below, DAPL coverage, and Standing Rock and DAPL content tags for dozens of original stories.) More background to this court case is available in the updates on our Legal Fund campaign page.