On May 24, 1990, Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, who were in the midst of organizing a massive nonviolent campaign against clearcutting, were nearly killed when a car bomb planted under their front seat exploded as they drove through Oakland. FBI investigators, who had recently completed a course in carbombing held at a Louisiana Pacific lumberyard, arrived on the scene almost immediately; FBI and Oakland Police investigators told the press that they had evidence that Bari and Cherney had themselves planted the car bomb and would thus be facing criminal charges. The campaign to discredit and "neutralize" Earth First! had reached new depths.

The district attorney eventually dropped all charges due to lack of evidence, but the FBI utterly failed to investigate the bombing any further. A year after the bombing, Bari and Cherney filed a civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and Oakland Police; the defendants, however filed appeals and other motions every step of the way, delaying the trial for 10 years. Meanwhile, Bari died from breast cancer in 1997. The trial finally opens on April 8, 2002, before Judge Claudia Wilken at the U.S. District Court in Oakland. It was originally scheduled to begin on October 1, 2001, but was postponed at the request of the plaintiffs – due to the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent pro-FBI public opinion.

The plaintiffs are suing the FBI and Oakland Police under the 1st, 4th, and 5th amendments for conspiracy, false arrest, unlawful search and seizure, interfering with their right to organize politically, and denying equal protection of the law in allowing the real assassins to go free. Evidence suggests that authorities falsified evidence, lied to the media and the courts, conspired to frame and demonize Judi Bari and Earth First! for political reasons, blamed the victims in spite of clear evidence of their innocence, targeted nonviolent environmentalists in a sham investigation of the bombing, ignored evidence pointing to the real bombers, and covered up their own wrongdoing.