Demand Attorney General Garland Reverse Donziger's Contempt Conviction
Department of Justice
On October 2022, the US Supreme Court ordered the Department of Justice to explain why it let Chevron privately prosecute and detain Steven Donziger after he helped Amazon Indigenous peoples win a historic $9.5 billion pollution judgment against the company. Steven spent almost 1,000 days locked up at home and in prison on a misdemeanor criminal “contempt” charge that had a maximum sentence of 180 days; the case had been rejected by the federal prosecutor but pursued anyway by a private Chevron law firm. This was the nation's first and only private corporate prosecution. Steven's detention also was the only time in US history a lawyer was locked up on a misdemeanor contempt charge.
The Supreme Court’s order to the DOJ was good news for the campaign to hold Chevron accountable for its mass industrial poisoning of Ecuador’s Amazon and for the legal effort to enforce the $9.5 billion pollution judgment against the company won by Indigenous peoples whom Steven helped represent. That good news was short-lived, however. In March 2023, in a major blow to the rule of law, seven justices of the US Supreme Court let stand Chevron's private prosecution and 993-day detention of Steven.
Remarkably, two of the court's justices – Gorsuch and Kavanaugh – signed a powerful dissent declaring Steven’s prosecution illegal. "Our Constitution does not tolerate what happened here," wrote Justice Gorsuch. The Chevron prosecution "broke a basic constitutional principle essential to our liberty."
Notwithstanding this setback, Steven remains steadfast in his efforts to obtain justice for the Indigenous people of Ecuador and other vulnerable communities harmed by pollution caused by fossil fuel companies and other corporations engaged in misconduct.
Please add your name now to demand Attorney General Merrick Garland stand for justice by supporting a presidential pardon for Steven. This is the correct course of action given Steven's longstanding service to vulnerable communities in the Amazon and his unprecedented and illegal corporate prosecution which violates the rule of law.
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In October 2022, the US Supreme Court ordered the Department of Justice to explain why it let Chevron privately prosecute and detain Steven Donziger after he helped Amazon Indigenous peoples win a historic $9.5 billion pollution judgment against the company. Steven spent nearly 1,000 days locked up at home and in prison on a misdemeanor “contempt” charge that had been rejected by the federal prosecutor, but pursued anyway by a private Chevron law firm in what was our nation’s first and only private corporate prosecution.
Although the Supreme Court in March denied certiorari and let stand Chevron's private prosecution and 993-day detention of Steven, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh signed a powerful dissent declaring Steven’s prosecution illegal. "Our Constitution does not tolerate what happened here," wrote Justice Gorsuch. He added that the Chevron prosecution "broke a basic constitutional principle essential to our liberty."
I am calling on Attorney General Garland to stand for justice and the rule of law – and against private corporate prosecutions – by supporting a presidential pardon for environmental justice and human rights attorney Steven Donziger. We also ask him to support the reinstatement of Steven’s license to practice law as recommended by a neutral hearing officer and the return of Steven’s passport and the restoration of his right to travel.