BLOCKED

Judge Rejects Tribes’ Dakota Pipeline Restraining Order

Construction can proceed, federal court rules.

A federal judge declined Monday to grant a restraining order to two Native American tribes seeking to stall the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe filed a temporary restraining order against the Army Corps of Engineers last week. The decision, by Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., leaves the two tribes with little legal recourse to block the pipeline. On Jan. 24, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring the pipeline’s completion a national priority. On Feb. 8, the Army Corps granted an easement to developers, allowing them to construct the final, highly controversial section of the pipeline that would tunnel under Lake Oahe, a water source located on the Standing Rock reservation. The easement also allowed the construction to begin without an environmental-impact review.