The Bush administration has a history of misusing law enforcement to harass to the environmental movement.

Texas had a long problem with air pollution. Under federal law Texas had to revise their program to reduce pollution. The levels of air pollution were exceeding the legal limits and causing health  problems. Then Governor Bush's postition was that industries in Texas did not have to comply with the law and the health hazards they were creating should be ignored.

This sparked lawful protests outside the governor's mansion. The Bush adminstration considered people exercising their right of free speech and assembly potentially embarassing for his presidential campaign.

To stop these legal protests the Bush administration claimed they had to ban them for public safety reasons. I am not making this up: the Texas DPS (the state troopers) claimed the one or two dozen protesters were endangering people because pedestrians could have to walk around them and when they did they could walk in the street and since they were in the street they could be hit by a car. Citing this as a security concern, the DPS banned the protests.

However the the DPS, acting on behalf of the Bush adminstration, was violating a Texas law that explictly allowed small peaceful protests in front of the governor's mansion. The environmentalists did not comply with the unlawful ban and were arrested.

The environmentalists sued because the DPS violated their rights of free speech and assembly and broke the law when they arrested the protesters. As was reported in the Austin American Statesman, because the DPS was clearly wrong it settled the case and paid a 99,000$ fine.