BISMARCK, N.D. – North Dakota will sue the federal government to try to recoup the $38 million it spent policing prolonged protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t respond to an administrative claim he filed last July, so the state will sue. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.
The state’s case is based on the fact that thousands of pipeline protesters camped on federal land without a permit. The Corps has said protesters weren’t evicted due to free speech reasons.
Stenehjem thinks the state has “a solid claim.”
But University of St. Thomas law professor Gregory Sisk says lawsuits that essentially allege the government failed at its job typically don’t succeed. He gives North Dakota “a 1 in 10 chance.”
