Murray Energy v. Public Citizen 2014

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</div><div>november 27, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – An energy corporation is suing Public Citizen, a nonprofit citizens’ watchdog group, claiming that radio ads run by the group caused the company to suffer “mental anguish and emotional distress.”Murray Energy, a major coal mining corporation is now claiming that Citizens United — the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has allowed unlimited election spending by billionaires and big business, may also give corporations privacy rights previously belonging only to people.Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, calls the claim a “bizarre twist” in Murray Energy’s lawsuit. Public Citizen’s radio ads drew attention to the company’s efforts to block new rules that are intended to help protect workers including preventing black lung disease and air pollution.In May, Murray sued The U.S. Department of Labor seeking to block the new worker safety rules for protecting coal miners and clean air protections. When Public Citizen aired hard-hitting radio ads (<a href="http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=4253" data-extlink="" target="blank" rel=" noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none;">view text and hear audio here<span class="ext" style="background-image: url(" images="images" extlink_s.png="extlink_s.png" background-position="background-position" px="px" center="center" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" width="width" height="height" padding-right="padding-right">(link is external)</a>) showing the plight of a miner stricken with black lung disease, Murray then sued Public Citizen as well.

After Public Citizen filed a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, the company argued that the ads “invaded its privacy” and caused it “mental anguish and emotional distress.”

Remember, Murray Energy is a company,” Weissman states in a letter sent to supporters seeking donations to fund fighting back against Murray’s lawsuit. “But in this post-Citizens United, “corporations are people” world, companies claim to have human privacy that can be invaded and human feelings that can be hurt…As if invoking Citizens United to claim a right intended for living, breathing human beings isn’t radical enough, Murray Energy goes even further, suggesting that it is willing to make this lawsuit about the truth of climate science itself.”He adds, “It could be the Scopes Monkey Trial all over again.”

A hearing in the case is scheduled for December 9.</div><div>oCTOBER 7, 2014</div><div>
</div><div> Public Citizen Fights Back Against Murray Energy Defamation Suit</div><div>
</div><div>Note: Public Citizen late Monday filed a motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought against the organization in August by Murray Energy Corporation and its CEO Robert Murray. The company and CEO sued after Public Citizen <a href="https://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=4253" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;">ran a short radio advertisement</a> criticizing the company for filing lawsuits to block regulations aimed at protecting public health and addressing climate change. In its motion to dismiss, Public Citizen explains that the lawsuit’s aim is to punish and silence critics. The statements of Public Citizen over which Murray Energy sued are either statements of fact or opinion, both of which are protected under the First Amendment. </div><div>
</div><div>Further, none of the statements in the ad is about Mr. Murray, so his defamation claim is baseless. The <a href="https://www.citizen.org/documents/murray-v-public-citizen-motion-to-dismiss.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;">motion is available here (PDF)</a>. Public Citizen is represented pro bono in the case by Robert Balin, Alison Schary and Joanna Summerscales of the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, and Fred Gittes and Jeffrey Vardaro of The Gittes Law Group<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[vid]<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">murray Energy is wrong on the law and wrong in the belief that it can silence consumer groups, reporters and other advocates for climate change solutions.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The groundless lawsuit by Murray Energy is a blatant attempt to silence opposing views – its fourth such lawsuit since July 2012.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
The Public Citizen ad made accurate statements and statements of our opinion, based on publicly available sources. As the ad states, Murray Energy has sued to block a rule intended to save lives by limiting the amount of coal dust to which coal miners are exposed. And Murray Energy has sued to block a proposed rule to limit carbon emissions from power plants – a rule intended to reduce the impact of climate change on human health and to prevent premature deaths attributable to carbon emissions.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Murray Energy’s lawsuit against Public Citizen is a desperate act by a member of an industry engaged in a losing battle against the tide of history. For decades, Dirty Energy interests have engaged in a public relations campaign to block action on climate change. As a result, we stand on the brink of climate catastrophe – a cataclysm that threatens tens of millions of lives.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The days when those bullying tactics can succeed are over. The growing public insistence on climate solutions is not going away; neither, unfortunately, is the reality of worsening climate change. <p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the rule proposed last spring by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evidences WHAT WAS IT? FATE?] , policy makers are, belatedly, starting to act. Murray Energy can’t stop that.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nonetheless, humanity is now in a race against time to take sufficiently bold and comprehensive action to avert catastrophic climate change. If Murray Energy and other companies succeed in slowing action further, we may well fall over the precipice. The consequences would be too terrible to contemplate.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That’s why there is only one reasonable response to a lawsuit intended to scare critics into silence: Defeat the lawsuit in court and use the lawsuit to educate, motivate and activate the American public.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So, our message to Murray Energy: Your lawsuit is only going to help build support for the very solutions to climate change you are trying so hard to prevent.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read the <a href="https://www.citizen.org/documents/murray-v-public-citizen-motion-to-dismiss.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;">motion (PDF)</a> to dismiss the lawsuit.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read Public Citizen’s <a href="https://www.citizen.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=6408" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;">response</a> to Robert Murray’s statements about the EPA rule.<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: var(--sy); margin-left: auto; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: var(--xw_4); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read <a href="https://www.citizen.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=6409" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition-property: var(--t8n_p1), color; box-shadow: 0px -1px inset; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-sizing: border-box;">background information</a> about Murray Energy.<div style="">
</div><div style="">=</div></div><div style=""><a href="https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/22/media/john-oliver-coal-king-murray-lawsuit/index.html">https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/22/media/john-oliver-coal-king-murray-lawsuit/index.html</a></div><div style="">
</div><div style=""><h2 class="speakable" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 30px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 38px; white-space: normal;">john Oliver -- and a giant squirrel -- made the king of coal seriously angry.</h2>Robert Murray, the CEO of one of America's largest coal companies, filed a defamation lawsuit against Oliver on Wednesday. The lawsuit claims the HBO comedian executed a "meticulously planned" and "ruthless character assassination" designed to boost TV ratings and hurt his mining company.<div id="ie_column" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: left; position: relative; overflow: hidden; white-space: normal;">The lawsuit named Oliver, the show's production company, his senior news producer Charles Wilson, HBO and Time Warner (TWX) (which owns CNN). The complaint alleges that Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" episode on Sunday "incited" viewers to "do harm to Mr. Murray and his companies." It also claims the miner's website was hacked as a result of the segment, and that Oliver's statements constitute "false light invasion of privacy" and intentional infliction of emotional distress.During his June 18 show, Oliver lambasted President Trump over his promises to bring back thousands of coal mining jobs, a pledge the comedian says is a false promise to an industry that's been in a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/25/investing/coal-trump-jobs-promise/index.html?iid=EL" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">steep decline for decades.</a>The segment, which has been viewed 4.5 million times on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw6RsUhw1Q8" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">YouTube</a>, devoted several minutes to Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, and a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/06/investing/coal-king-trump-paris-climate-change/index.html?iid=EL" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">vocal champion of the coal industry</a>. Oliver told the audience that Murray had warned him he would sue and bring the case all the way to the Supreme Court if he failed to "cease and desist" any effort to "defame, harass, or otherwise injure Mr. Murray or Murray Energy."<div id="ad_nat_btf_03" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: normal;">Oliver said on air that he would "proceed with caution," and then he launched into a monologue comparing the 77-year-old coal exec to a "geriatric Dr. Evil." The segment chronicled Murray's career in mining and his handling of a 2007 mine collapse in Utah that left six miners and three rescuers dead."An honest conversation about coal and its miners needs to be had," Oliver said, "and we should neither cease nor desist from having it."But the complaint alleges that Oliver and the show "intentionally, falsely, and outrageously" suggested that Murray had no evidence to support statements that the mine collapse was caused by an earthquake. The lawsuit claims Oliver ignored studies supporting Murray and quoted others out of context.<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/06/investing/coal-king-trump-paris-climate-change/index.html?iid=EL" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Related: Coal king: It's 'wonderful' Trump ditched Paris deal</a>Oliver later recounted a story -- that Murray has denied happened -- that the CEO told workers the idea for starting a mine company came to him from a squirrel.At the end of the show, the HBO host trotted a man dressed in a giant squirrel costume onto stage to address Murray directly. "Bob, I just wanted to say if you plan on suing, I do not have a billion dollars, but I do have a check for three acorns and 18 cents," the squirrel said."It's made out to 'Eat sht Bob!," the squirrel said, while holding up a giant fake check with "kiss my ass!" scrawled in the memo field.Oliver acknowledged during the show that Murray is "probably going to sue me." He added, "You know what? I stand by everything I said."In a statement, HBO said: "We have confidence in the staff of Last Week Tonight and do not believe anything in the show this week violated Mr. Murray's or Murray Energy's rights."<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/05/news/economy/donald-trump-coal-jobs/index.html?iid=EL" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Related: Coal country's message to Trump: We want jobs of the future</a>Murray Energy's complaint referred to Oliver, who is British, as a "foreign national residing in New York." The company, in a separate statement, called Murray a "patriotic American."The lawsuit also described Murray as seriously ill, saying he depends on an oxygen tank, needs a lung transplant and "does not expect to live to see the end of this case.""Nothing has ever stressed him more than this vicious and untruthful attack," the complaint said, adding it has caused "significant emotional and physical distress."Murray Energy said that after the Oliver show, its website was attacked three different times by hackers who attempted to crash it. On the third attempt, Murray Energy said it had to take down its website to implement new security measures.Murray Energy also said it received "numerous harassing telephone calls," including from callers who simply said: "Eat Sht, Bob."The coal magnate has spoken out publicly to criticize environmental restrictions on the coal industry and has described former President Barack Obama's agenda as "evil."Murray also filed a libel suit against the New York Times earlier this year for statements it made about the Utah mine collapse. The Times said it has moved to dismiss the suit.</div></div></div><div style="">
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