North Dakota judge rules DAPL documents are public

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A state judge has ruled that thousands of documents related to security during the construction in North Dakota of the heavily protested Dakota Access Pipeline are public and subject to the state’s open records law. The ruling by South Central District Judge Cynthia Feland is a victory for The Intercept news organization, which sued in 2020 to get access to the documents for investigative journalism. The documents relate to Energy Transfer, the Texas-based company that built the pipeline, and TigerSwan, the North Carolina company that Energy Transfer hired to oversee security during construction. Energy Transfer argued the documents are confidential.