Civil Society Groups Ask U.S. Supreme Court To Reject Chevron's Attempts to Suppress Free Speech and Undermine Historic Amazon Pollution Case
...Seventeen separate environmental and human rights groups filed two amicus briefs today urging the [US Supreme Court] justices to overturn Chevron's retaliatory racketeering suit against Ecuadorian Amazonian communities and their lawyers. The briefs seek a reversal of an unprecedented lower court ruling...that allowed Chevron to use U.S. courts to personally sue the villagers, their lawyers, and also Ecuador's entire judicial system to try block a legitimate $9.5 billion environmental judgment issued in the South American nation after the oil giant insisted the environmental trial be held there...The first brief...affirms that the initial ruling...tramples the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens who dare to speak out against human rights abuses..The second brief...details extensive evidence that Chevron committed corrupt and illegal actions in Ecuador and during the [racketeering] proceeding...