Oral Argument in BBP v. 38 Acres

Date 

Add to My Calendar Wednesday, January 8, 2020 10:00am to 12:00pm

Location 

Third Circuit Court of Appeals
1000 Main St.
Lake Charles, LA 70615

On January 8, 2020, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Pamela Spees, senior staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, will represent the landowners in Bayou Bridge Pipeline Company (BBP) v. 38 Acres as they appeal a December 6, 2018 Louisiana District Court ruling allowing BBP to exercise eminent domain over the landowners' property to build its pipeline through the sensitive Atchafalaya Basin, despite ruling that the company had trespassed on the privately owned land as it undertook construction of the oil pipeline.

The landowners are challenging BBP's exercise of eminent domain over their 38 acres of the Atchafalaya Basin that they have property rights to, claiming that BBP’s attempt to expropriate their land violates the landowners’ right to due process and right to property under the Constitution.

The challenge refutes the company’s claim that the pipeline is in the public interest—the underlying basis for their power to exercise eminent domain—in light of the extensive spill and leak record of the companies involved, the role that pipelines have played in the coastal erosion crisis in Louisiana, and the ways in which reliance on fossil fuels has contributed to climate change.

Last modified 

January 7, 2020