Minnesota coalition opposes constitution busting legislation

A bill, known as Worker Safety and Energy Security Act, is being considered by the Minnesota Senate and House. The Worker Safety and Energy Security Act, which is also known as HF 2241 or SF 2011, offers no protection to Minnesota workers. Instead, it proposes imposing draconian fines, and even prison time, on water protectors and environmental protestors. Although energy infrastructure such as power plants are included in the bills text, the authors dedicate much of their energy to oil and gas pipeline resistance. The bill exists because of the strong resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline and the anticipated protests if Line 3 construction starts next year.  

This week I had the honor of working with a group of people from MN350, the Sierra Club, The Land Stewardship Project, and the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to develop a communications strategy to oppose this nasty piece of 1st Amendment busting legislation. 

It was very satisfying to see all of these organizations working together toward a common goal.  On our team we even had Kathy Hollander, who refers to herself as a volunteer lobbyist. I’d never heard of a volunteer lobbyist before but Kathy seemed knowledgeable, meticulous, and well connected to the political world at the Legislature. It’s good to have somebody like her on your team.

Kathy refers to this bill as the “Guilt by Association” bill. That is to say that if a pipeline protester is arrested for trespassing, for example, they will be arrested and fined but so will any group that they may have associated with that advocates against pipelines. The concern is that not only will protest be discouraged but that anti-pipeline advocacy will be discouraged for fear that advocacy groups will be held liable for unknown parties that choose to commit civil disobedience or inadvertently get in a tussle with the cops.

Here are some of the points of opposition to HF 2241/SF 2011 that were developed by the collaborative group:

*Minnesota has a long and proud history of people coming together to exercise their rights and make their voices heard. SF 2011/HF 2241 is designed to chill protest and assembly. The bill would compromise First Amendment rights with threat of excessive prison time and monetary liability. 

*SF 2011/HF 2241 is a strong-arm effort to squelch environmental activism and particularly meant to threaten Native groups that have built a powerful movement to protect their communities and spotlight environmental injustice.

*Minnesotans care about fairness under the law. It’s patently unfair to single out and threaten specific groups based on their beliefs and their commitment to protecting natural resources. That’s not One Minnesota.

One part of this bill that we did not talk about is that it proposes to deputize pipeline employees so that they can arrest protestors in the absence of the police. The bill also proposes holding harmless any of these deputized employees for damage or injury that they may cause.

In other words, the Minnesota Senate is proposing too deputize a squad of pipe line vigilantes who have free rein to interpret the law and then enforce it without being restricted by potential liability from injury or damage that they may cause. Not even police have those kinds of protections.

The Minnesota Coalition will be working to stop this legislation in the coming weeks. I hope that you will call your legislators  and tell them to oppose it.

Meanwhile Inside Climate News reports that legislators in fifteen states are attempting to pass, or have passed similar legislation. You can read their article here  https://tinyurl.com/y65k5ssl

“Environmental and civil liberties advocates, as well as many Native American tribes, say the bills are an attempt to stifle legitimate protest by creating harsh penalties for minor infractions and by trying to scare off advocacy groups. An organization that holds a nonviolence training, for example, might be targeted under the law if attendees are later part of a protest that ends in a clash with private security forces or police,” writes Nicholas Kusnetz, the author of the Inside Climate News article.

Tim

Central Minnesota Political