A new legal brief was filed Friday in Polk County District Court that asks the court to take away the right of eminent domain from Texas-based company Dakota Access, which is building the Bakken Pipeline across the state, including through parts of Boone and Story counties.

The brief was filed by Bill Hanigan, of the Davis Brown Law Firm in Des Moines. In August, Hanigan filed a motion with the district court to temporarily prevent construction of the pipeline across the property of 14 Iowa landowners while the lawsuit remained pending. The court denied the request and the pipeline was installed on the property of all 14 landowners, according to a press release.

The brief filed Friday is in preparation of oral arguments scheduled for Dec. 15. It asks the court to revoke Dakota Access’s use of eminent domain and to order Dakota Access to remove the pipeline from the property of the 14 Iowa landowners.

“I don’t understand how Dakota Access can seize my family’s farm,” said landowner and Davis Brown client, Cyndy Coppola in a written statement. “Dakota Access is a private, out-of-state company and that’s not right. Worse, we are fighting what I believe to be an unethical corporation transporting hazardous, fracked oil and getting no help from our own government.”

Earlier this year, the Iowa Utilities Board ruled that Dakota Access may use the state’s power of eminent domain and could proceed with its proposed oil pipeline.

In the brief, Hanigan argues that the IUB misinterpreted Iowa law, specifically the 2006 law designed to protect Iowa farmland, and the United States Constitution. The landowners believe that Dakota Access is not a public utility and should not have the ability to use eminent domain to forcibly access Iowa landowners’ property to build a private pipeline, according to the press release.