"NEW ORLEANS — A state law that carries a possible five-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of trespassing in the area of a pipeline should be declared unconstitutional, environmentalists and others said in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge is aimed at 2018 legislation approved amid protests over construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, an oil conduit in south Louisiana that has since been completed. The bill added pipelines to the list of items considered “critical infrastructure” in Louisiana, and provided for a five-year maximum prison sentence for anyone convicted of “unauthorized entry” to those installations.
Before the law was approved, the suit says, “those who engaged in peaceful demonstrations or civil disobedience in the vicinity of pipelines or pipeline construction sites faced the possibility of a misdemeanor charge of trespass if they remained on the property after being forbidden.”"
