From 2021... This started before #Trump, but things are way worse now!

#AntiProtestLaws Threaten #Indigenous and #Climate Movements

“#CriticalInfrastructure” laws in over a dozen states wrongly invoke national security to justify targeting #PipelineProtesters.

Kaylana Mueller-Hsia, March 17, 2021

"In 2016 as a member of Congress, #DebHaaland stood for four days in solidarity with protesters at the #StandingRockSioux Reservation against construction of the #DakotaAccessPipeline. Today, as the first #NativeAmerican to be the secretary of the interior — the first to lead any cabinet department — she has the opportunity to support the #FirstAmendment rights of the protesters she joined in the past.

"With her authority over energy development on federal lands, Haaland can be a voice for Indigenous and climate movements facing an urgent threat: the rapid spread of laws to protect 'critical infrastructure' that single out activists.

"Since 2016, 13 states have quietly enacted laws that increase criminal penalties for trespassing, damage, and interference with infrastructure sites such as oil refineries and pipelines. At least five more states have already introduced similar legislation this year. These laws draw from national security legislation enacted after 9/11 to protect physical infrastructure considered so 'vital' that the 'incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety.'

"Many industry sectors are designated critical infrastructure, including food and agriculture, energy, water and wastewater, and communications, but most state critical infrastructure laws focus more narrowly on oil and gas #pipelines. While protecting critical infrastructure is a legitimate government function, these laws clearly target environmental and Indigenous activists by significantly raising the penalties for participating in or even tangentially supporting pipeline trespassing and property damage, crimes that are already illegal. Many laws are modelled on draft legislation prepared by the American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as #ALEC, a powerful lobbying group funded by #FossilFuel companies like #ExxonMobil and #Shell.

"Central to the new critical infrastructure laws are increased criminal penalties and vague, broad definitions that could discourage protest and particularly, nonviolent civil disobedience. Many laws make any 'damage' to or 'interference' with a facility deemed critical infrastructure a felony. Under #Ohio’s law, trespass with the purpose of 'tampering' with a facility is a third degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. In Indiana, a felony conviction is applied for any facility trespass, a crime that is typically a misdemeanor or fine.

"Vague language like 'damage,' 'tamper,' and 'impede' in critical infrastructure laws makes it unclear if, for example, knocking down #SafetyCones and starting a fire next to a natural gas facility are the same under the law. Many critical infrastructure laws do not clarify if they apply only to land a company fully owns or also to pipeline easements, which run through both public and private lands. At least some laws apply to both. Only a week after Louisiana’s critical infrastructure law was enacted, opponents of the Bayou Bridge pipeline were charged with trespassing for boating on public waters on the border of a pipeline easement.

"The combination of overly broad language and steep penalties in critical infrastructure laws make it likely that future activists and supporting organizations will be discouraged from exercising their First Amendment-protected protest rights. A lawsuit brought in response to the #BayouBridge charges will test the laws for the first time on First Amendment grounds.

"Many of these laws even extend beyond the protesters. In a proposed law in #Minnesota, anyone who 'recruits, trains, aids, advises, hires, counsels, or conspires' someone to trespass without a 'reasonable effort' to prevent the trespassing is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. In #Oklahoma organizations that conspire with perpetrators are liable to be fined up to $1 million. These laws may infringe on the freedom of association protected under the First Amendment. Indeed, the Supreme Court ruled that the illegal actions of a few individuals do not implicate an entire group.

"The criminalization of environmental protest is fueled by federal security agencies and oil and gas companies, who are often major political donors. For years, the Department of #HomelandSecurity and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have labelled activists at infrastructure sites as #DomesticTerrorists and violent extremists in order to justify further #surveillance and #policing. Government documents have been released that detail the FBI’s focus on '#AnimalRights / #EnvironmentalExtremism,' describing even #NonviolentProtesters as #extremists.

"At Standing Rock, a private security firm [#Blackwater] hired by the pipeline companies consistently referred to protesters as 'terrorists' while working with law enforcement. Ahead of the #KeystoneXLPipeline protests in 2018, #DHS agents held an '#AntiTerrorism training' for state and local authorities. In contrast, members of the #FarRight militant group the #ThreePercenters have established a significant presence at oil and gas plants with little law enforcement reaction.

"To be sure, as the recent power outages in Texas showed so vividly, the United States needs reliable energy. But it’s questionable whether pipeline construction sites that could feasibly be moved or replaced with renewable energy sources should legitimately be considered 'vital' to the energy grid. Furthermore, a singular focus on this aspect of security comes at the cost of others. Whose essential resources do pipeline projects protect and whose do they threaten? Black Americans are disproportionately likely to live near natural #GasPipelines and experience higher #CancerRisk due to unclean air. An oil spill from the Dakota Access Pipeline could devastate the #SiouxTribe’s water source. Meanwhile, on some reservations, 10 percent of households lack electricity and as many as 40 percent of households must haul water and use outhouses. The well-being of these communities must count too.

"The rise in critical infrastructure laws may foreshadow more anti-protest legislation to come. A similar wave of anti-protest laws has already begun in response to the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests. State legislators contemplating critical infrastructure laws should bear in mind that laws that criminalize trespassing and protect the safety of construction workers and law enforcement already exist. Critical infrastructure laws don’t fill an unmet need — they only raise the penalties for specific groups of people. Courts adjudicating #FirstAmendment challenges in the coming years should recognize that these laws are overbroad and impose disproportionately severe penalties that chill freedom of assembly and association.

"As secretary of the interior, Haaland promises to uplift the voices of Indigenous and climate protesters in the Biden administration. State legislators, law enforcement, and the fossil fuel industry should follow suit and listen to these activists rather than suppressing constitutionally protected activity under the guise of national security."

Source:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/anti-protest-laws-threaten-indigenous-and-climate-movements

‘#GoodTrouble’ #protesters rally in #BangorME against the #Trump administration

by Annie Rupertus July 17, 2025

"About 200 people gathered on Stillwater Avenue near the Bangor Mall Thursday evening to rally against the Trump administration in honor of the late congressman and civil rights activist #JohnLewis.

"The event was the latest in a series of nationwide protests broadly opposing President Donald Trump’s policies, with '#GoodTroubleLivesOn' events planned in more than 1,500 locations across all 50 states, according to The Guardian.

"More than 20 Maine communities participated in Thursday’s protests. The Bangor event was organized by #IndivisibleBangor, a progressive advocacy group that formed after the 2016 election to oppose Trump’s agenda. Indivisible has thousands of chapters across the country.

"The protest aimed to embody Lewis’s appeal for Americans to get into 'good trouble, #NecessaryTrouble,' in pursuit of #SocialJustice, according to organizer Mary Ann Larson.

" 'People are waking up,' Larson said, noting she was especially concerned about the recently passed budget reconciliation bill and what it will mean for #RuralMaine hospitals and people who rely on #FoodStamps funded by the federal government.

"Thursday’s protest attendees were mostly older adults. Many brought American flags and pro-democracy signs with messages like '#NoKings in America' and 'imagine being afraid of #diversity more than #dictatorship' — similar messaging to the larger 'No Kings' rally last month, which saw more than 1,000 participants in Bangor.

"The group seemed to get mostly positive responses from drivers passing by on the busy Bangor road, who often honked or waved out of their windows at the crowd lined up on the curb between Chick-fil-A and Washville.

"One attendee, artist Bernice Cross, wore a handmade jacket with painted American flag imagery. She drove to the protest from Greenbush in a car she painted with abstract art and #BlackLivesMatter messaging in 2020 in response to the murder of #GeorgeFloyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

"Cross came out because 'I love America,' she said, and in her view, Trump is destroying America and the values it was founded on.

"For Cynthia Purmort and Mary Ann Labue of Cape Cod, who drove down to Bangor from their camp in Willimantic, a desire to defend the Constitution and individual freedoms were key in bringing them out to the protest.

" 'These are desperate times,' Purmort said.

"Many rallygoers also mentioned defending #immigrants as a key issue, with some chanting, 'Hey hey! Ho ho! #StephenMiller’s got to go' in reference to Trump’s #HomelandSecurity advisor.

"Multiple protesters also expressed concerns about the measure approved by the Senate Thursday that would slash funding for #PublicBroadcasting and international aid [#USAID].

"Thursday’s rally was planned to coincide with the five-year anniversary of Lewis’s death.

"He was a key figure in the #CivilRights Movement who spent decades advocating for #RacialJustice and nonviolent #resistance. He is especially known for leading over 600 voting rights protesters on an #Alabama march from #SelmaToMontgomery in 1965 that is widely credited with spurring the passage of the landmark #VotingRightsAct.

"Alabama state troopers attacked the nonviolent marchers on Selma’s #EdmundPettusBridge and fractured Lewis’s skull, but he survived and later was elected to represent an Atlanta district in the U.S. Congress in 1986, serving until he died of pancreatic cancer in 2020."

Source:
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2025/07/17/bangor/bangor-culture/john-lewis-good-trouble-rally-bangor-against-trump-administration/