On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Defends Environmental Activist Arrested in Front of Boar’s Head Inn for Protesting Strip Mining by Dominion Virginia Power
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The Rutherford Institute is defending the First Amendment rights of a Charlottesville environmentalist to protest on a public highway in front of the Boar's Head Inn over the strip mining activities of Dominion Virginia Power. Chris Walters was arrested and charged with trespassing on May 12, 2011, after refusing to move from the shoulder of Route 250 West in Charlottesville near the entrance of the Boar's Head Inn, where Dominion Virginia Power was holding a shareholders' meeting. Institute attorneys will defend Walters against the trespassing charge, which is scheduled to be heard in Albemarle General District Court on July 19, 2011.
"The streets and parks in this country exist, in part, for the exercise of rights—specifically, the right to assemble and protest—by the American people," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Chris Walters has a right to engage in political expression and his arrest is an egregious violation of the First Amendment. The fact that Walters was arrested for exercising his free speech rights in Charlottesville, a city that prides itself on being the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson, who envisioned America as an empire of liberty, is a sad reflection on how we value freedom today."
Mountaintop removal mining involves the removal of the summit or summit ridge of a mountain in order to provide easier access to coal seams. The practice (the subject of the recent documentary "The Last Mountain," featuring Robert Kennedy, Jr.) has been sharply criticized as having serious environmental impact, including loss of biodiversity, that cannot be mitigated. Reports indicate Dominion Virginia Power is a large consumer of coal mined using mountaintop removal. On May 12, 2011, Dominion Virginia Power shareholders assembled at Boar's Head Inn to consider a resolution to limit the utility company's purchase of coal derived from mountaintop removal.
That same day, Chris Walters and a number of other grassroots environmental activists gathered near the entrance to the Boar's Head Inn on U.S. Route 250 to protest Dominion Virginia Power's practice of mountaintop removal mining. As Walters and others walked with signs along the shoulder of the south side of Route 250, they were approached by Albemarle County police, who ordered them to move to the other side of the road. The protesters were informed that they were on private property owned by the Boar's Head Inn and that the property owner was demanding they leave.
Although most of the other protesters moved, Walters refused to do so, asserting that he was on a public right of way. When he continued to stand his ground, rebuffing a second order to move, Walters was arrested for trespassing. At the time of the arrest, Walters was standing between the south side guardrail and the paved portion of the highway. Walters pleaded not guilty at his May 20, 2011 court appearance.
