The developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy Transfer, is asking the North Dakota Supreme Court to intervene in a long-running legal battle and force a pause on a free speech lawsuit filed against it overseas by Greenpeace International.

Energy Transfer is appealing a state judge’s September decision that declined to halt the Amsterdam-based environmental group’s lawsuit in the Netherlands. 

The company argues the Dutch case is a tactic to evade North Dakota’s legal system and "collaterally attacks the jury verdict" in the ongoing defamation and conspiracy suit it filed against Greenpeace in Morton County District Court.

That North Dakota case is against Greenpeace International and two U.S. affiliates, Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund. 

A Morton County jury found against the environmental groups, leading to a verdict that District Judge James Gion recently reduced from more than $660 million to roughly $345 million. Gion has yet to enter a final judgment.

Greenpeace International filed its counter-suit in February, alleging Energy Transfer’s legal challenge is designed to waste its time and money. 

The Dutch case, filed under a new European Union directive that protects activists from arbitrary legal action, also seeks monetary damages and alleges that Energy Transfer made defamatory statements about the group.

Judge Gion had ruled that he would not suspend the overseas lawsuit because the two cases address different legal claims. 

Energy Transfer is now petitioning the state Supreme Court to step in, arguing that the court's intervention is necessary to prevent a foreign tribunal from "sit[ting] in judgment over North Dakota’s judiciary."

The high court is scheduled to hear arguments on the appeal on Dec. 18. Greenpeace International, which denies any substantial connection to North Dakota or the protests, plans to participate in the oral arguments in support of Gion’s ruling. 

The state of North Dakota has filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to use the case to develop clear guidelines for handling future requests to pause foreign lawsuits.