On trial is the environmental campaign organisation Greenpeace, which is being sued over its role in the Dakota Access pipeline protests by the company that developed the project. Nearly a decade after the demonstrations, the case is finally being heard in front of a jury.

Energy Transfer, the US pipeline group co-founded by the billionaire Kelcy Warren, a donor to President Trump, has accused Greenpeace of fostering the protests ¡ª which became one of the largest indigenous and environmental demonstrations in US history ¡ª as well as damaging property and injuring its relationship with investors.

...the North Dakota trial has become a high-profile judicial test of free speech under Trump, who has repeatedly lambasted the media and has started to target activists and political opponents... Lawyers and activists argue that, if Energy Transfer is successful, it could set a dangerous precedent for freedom of speech, discouraging not just activism about energy and the climate, but in many other areas too.

¡°This is one of the most important cases in American history,¡± says Martin Garbus, a renowned civil rights lawyer who has been monitoring the trial in the Mandan courthouse.

¡°The law that can come down in this case can affect any demonstration, religious or political,¡± he says. ¡°It¡¯s far bigger than the environment.¡±