We’re suing the Feds for their use of chemical weapons in Portland:
Update on this case from Brenna, our Forest Climate Manager
Remember the summer of 2020 when tear gas filled the skies? Remember when 350PDX filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding that the federal government comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and analyze the human and environmental health impacts of all that gas and other chemical munitions they released night after night?
Last fall, the Federal District court dismissed the case because, in short, the court decided that the Department of Homeland Security did not take a “final agency action” when it sent federal officers to Portland armed with chemical munitions, therefore the court did not have jurisdiction over the case. Earlier this week, 350 PDX joined our allies NW Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Neighbors for Clean Air, Willamette Riverkeeper, and Cascadia Wildlands and filed a brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting that the court overturn this opinion and reinstate this case.
I am very excited to join attorneys from the ACLU, Willamette Riverkeeper & Cascadia Wildlands on the legal team for this appeal (as I hatched the idea for the lawsuit after I got tear gassed by a tree outside of the federal courthouse in July 2020!). We’ll keep you posted on further case developments, and in the meantime, listen to this song that has been running through my head as I write this update.
