On October 11, 2017, the US District Court under Judge Boasberg issued a temporary ruling that the Dakota Access Pipeline can stay open for now, while the larger case proceeds. The full 28-page ruling is available here.
The judge also chastised ETP for beginning operations while the case was unresolved. This may be a slim ray of hope for the future.
Interestingly, the judge’s decision was not based on Energy Transfer Partner’s (ETP) economic arguments. Instead, he rule that the pipeline could stay open because it was “possible” that the Army Corps could address the judge’s earlier rulings by modifying the Environmental Assessment (EA) and would not have to do an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This does not bode well for the Tribes in the long run. In fact, it’s exactly what I predicted in my analysis of the judge’s earlier ruling, “that the Corps can satisfy this judge by simply amending the EA and adding in a few sentences“.
For additional information on the case, see my earlier blog post. For the latest updates, see Earthjustice’s website.
Memories of the People 
Update on March 14, 2018: No change. The Army Corp is still modifying the EA, as ordered by the judge, and may be done in April.