Greenpeace is set to go on trial on Monday before a North Dakota jury in a bombshell lawsuit that, if successful, could bankrupt the storied group.

The Dallas-based company Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace in 2017, accusing it of masterminding raucous protests over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation nearly a decade ago. The activists say the lawsuit is a thinly veiled tactic to suppress free speech and set a chilling precedent for protest groups, and that Greenpeace played only a supporting role in demonstrations that were led by Native Americans.

“This trial is a critical test of the future of the First Amendment, both freedom of speech and peaceful protest under the Trump administration and beyond,” Greenpeace’s interim director, Sushma Raman, said in public remarks on Thursday.

Energy Transfer declined to comment in advance of the trial. In a statement in August, it said the lawsuit against Greenpeace was “not about free speech as they are trying to claim. It is about them not following the law.”

Greenpeace said the damages sought would amount to $300 million, a figure that is more than 10 times the group’s annual budget. Two associated entities are also named as defendants: the Greenpeace Fund, which is based in Washington and awards grants to other groups, and Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands.

The trial is scheduled to last five weeks at the state court in Mandan, N.D. Many observers are skeptical that Greenpeace, one of the most well-known environmental activist groups in the world, will be able to win over a jury in conservative North Dakota.