"On Oct. 11, William Mitchell Professor Colette Routel argued in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in two cases, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe et al v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management. These cases challenge the U.S. government’s approval of the Ruby Pipeline, a 677-mile underground natural gas pipeline beginning in southwestern Wyoming, crossing Utah and Nevada, and terminating in southern Oregon. Routel has represented the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe pro bono in this litigation since October 2010, when she was referred to the case by the Native American Rights Fund.

In the litigation, Routel alleges that the United States violated provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act when it authorized a private company to build the pipeline through the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe’s sacred sites without first analyzing the adverse effects that the pipeline would cause those sites, and without properly consulting with the Tribe.

Several other groups challenged the construction of the pipeline on different grounds, including Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Fort Bidwell Indian Community, and a Coalition of Local Governments."

Get the Story:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit hears arguments from William Mitchell Professor Colette Routel (William Mitchell College of Law 10/18)

Also Today:
Audio of Oral Argument in Summit Lake/Center for Biological Diversity v. BLM (Turtle Talk 10/17)