IN AN ATTEMPT TO INTIMIDATE US AND SILENCE THE RIGHTS OF NATURE MOVEMENT, THE COLORADO ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS THREATENED SANCTIONS AGAINST OUT LAWSUIT, COLORADO RIVER V. COLORADO.

Editor’s note: The first Rights of Nature lawsuit in the United States, Colorado River v. Colorado, was filed September 25, 2017, in Denver, Colorado. The full text of the complaint can be found here.

Denver, CO—The Colorado Attorney General has issued an ultimatum to the attorney who filed the first federal rights of nature law suit: voluntarily withdraw the Complaint or face sanctions.

“They didn’t threaten to sanction Exxon attorneys for lying about global warming, or Bank of America attorneys for fraudulently foreclosing on people’s homes, or Nestle attorneys for privatizing our water and selling it back to us—but try to equal the playing field between corporations and the environment and they try to personally damage you,” says Jason Flores-Williams. “It’s the playbook.”

Will Falk, a writer, attorney, and one of the next friends in the lawsuit, denounced the Attorney General’s threats, saying, “The Attorney General is duty-bound to work solely for the good of the people, but through these threats the Attorney General is working solely for the good of corporations.”

The response to the Attorney General stating the reasons for why the suit will not be withdrawn can be found here.