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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit by three people who say they were illegally arrested as they protested construction of a major oil pipeline in south Louisiana.

The suit was filed last year by protesters who say they were illegally arrested while in a canoe and kayak on a navigable waterway near the pipeline site in August 2018.

Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC sought to have the suit dismissed. But U.S. District Judge Shelley Dick in Baton Rouge rejected the company’s argument that the lawsuit wasn’t specific enough about the company’s role in the allegedly illegal arrests.