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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Raleigh County judge has issued a preliminary injunction to block anti-mountaintop removal activists from further peaceful protests on certain Massey Energy mining sites.

Circuit Judge Robert Burnside issued the injunction after two days in Beckley, in response to a civil lawsuit filed by several Massey subsidiaries whose operations have been shut down several times by the protesters.

Burnside narrowed the scope of his ruling, compared to an earlier temporary restraining order. But the judge still extended the injunction to unnamed protesters who act in concert with or in association with previous protesters named in the injunction.

"We have very serious issues we are looking at for appeal," said Roger Forman, lawyer for the protesters.

Massey sued seeking a court injunction after a series of protests that began in late February, and involved activists going onto mine sites, chaining themselves to heavy equipment, blocking roads, and putting up large anti-mountaintop removal banners.

The protesters, through a coalition of the groups Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice, want to stop mountaintop removal and are also concerned about coal's contribution to climate change.

In one incident over Memorial Day weekend, two women donned haz-mat suits and respirators, then boated onto a huge coal-slurry impoundment to launch a floating banner that said, "No more toxic sludge!"  They were charged with trespassing and littering.

Burnside's ruling this week is not on criminal charges against the protesters, but concerns the civil case filed by the Massey subsidiaries. Alex Energy, Independence Coal and Marfork Coal wanted the judge to block further protests and order State Police troopers to confiscate cameras, film and memory cards from the protesters. Company lawyers also wanted Burnside to hold several protesters and one journalist in contempt of the earlier temporary restraining order.

According to Forman, Burnside kept in place a contempt order against photojournalist Antrim Caskey and four protesters. The judge had held them in contempt of his previous order for a mid-April protest action. Caskey had been enjoined after she went onto mine property to photograph earlier civil disobedience actions.  None of the four protesters were named in the restraining order, but they and Caskey were held in contempt of the order because they alerted her to their planned protest and she went along to document it. Caskey and the protesters have been fined $500 each.

Burnside also continued to name another photojournalist, Chad Stevens, in his preliminary injunction, rejecting arguments by West Virginia University law professor Bob Bastress that doing so violated Stevens' First Amendment right to document the protests.

Forman said Burnside did agree to not extend the injunction beyond his jurisdiction in Raleigh County, and to apply it only to Raleigh County operations of the Massey subsidiaries that filed the suit. The original temporary order applied to any Massey operation anywhere, Forman said.

Massey officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mike Roselle, a leader of Climate Ground Zero, said the campaign against mountaintop removal would continue.

"If the injunction is the roadblock between us and stopping mountaintop removal, we clearly have to go after the injunction," Roselle said.

"This isn't over," Roselle said. "As far as deterring us, we were well aware of the risks we faced before we started."

@tag:Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.