Tuesday, December 10 at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET
Minnesota Judicial Center
690 Cedar St, Courtroom 300
St. Paul, MN 55155
Livestream of the hearing will be available here: https://www.mncourts.gov/SupremeCourt/OralArgumentLivestream.aspx
On Tuesday, Dec. 10, the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Energy Transfer LP v. Greenpeace International, Unicorn Riot, in which the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Minnesota, and the law firm Biersdorf & Associates represent media organization Unicorn Riot and one of its member journalists. Unicorn Riot seeks to quash a subpoena for sensitive communications, recordings, and other unreleased newsgathering materials from the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests.
Unicorn Riot journalists reported on the ground from the DAPL protests, gathering and publishing first-hand accounts. The oil company Energy Transfer, together with other plaintiffs, later sued the protesters in North Dakota and, in 2022, moved to compel disclosure of unpublished materials held by Unicorn Riot in Minnesota, alleging that trespassing made the materials unprotected. The Minnesota Court of Appeals held that Minnesota’s press shield law, the Free Flow of Information Act, protects the materials from disclosure, and Energy Transfer petitioned the Minnesota Supreme Court to take the case.
At the Minnesota Supreme Court, in October 2024 the ACLU filed a brief on behalf of Unicorn Riot arguing that the First Amendment, the Minnesota Constitution, and the Minnesota Free Flow of Information Act prohibit the compelled disclosure of newsgathering materials. The brief highlights that Energy Transfer seeks to conjure an unwritten exception to the state’s shield law, and that the law’s purpose would be severely undermined if “the statutory shield were to evaporate whenever, in the course of newsgathering, a reporter allegedly trespasses, speeds, jaywalks, or double-parks.”
