LOS ANGELES - President Barack Obama may have nixed a permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, but that hasn't stopped the Canadian company that wants to build the 1,660-mile structure from going to court to force the cooperation of landowners who don't want the pipeline crossing their land.

The dispute erupted into a noisy protest Friday in Paris, Texas, where farm manager Julia Trigg Crawford has sought a temporary restraining order to prevent the company, TransCanada, from beginning any construction or digging on her property until issues of legal jurisdiction are decided.

TransCanada has sought to dissolve a restraining order granted a week ago, saying it is legally entitled to pursue eminent domain proceedings along the proposed pipeline route under existing state and federal laws - though it says it has no plans to begin any construction or trenching.

The issue has brought conservative tea party groups out to rally alongside environmentalists opposed to tar sands oil production, united behind Crawford's attempt to keep the pipeline from crossing the 600-acre farm in the town of Direct, near Paris, where she fears it could contaminate the creek that irrigates her fields and damage Native American burial artifacts.

"Protect Texas landowners over foreign tar sands pipelines," said many of the signs being marched around outside the Lamar County Courthouse. At least 75 citizens - conservative property rights advocates, gray-haired landowners, environmental activists and even some Occupy protesters - filled the small courtroom.

"I never got a chance to go before a judge and say, 'Judge, I don't want to give them my land,'" Crawford said in an interview. "Not only do I think the landowners are being bullied, but now they're saying they want to have the right to be able to start construction. And they don't even have a permit."

While Congress and the Obama administration wrestle over a final decision on TransCanada's permit to ship oil into the U.S., the company has quietly continued acquiring easements for the $7 billion project from landowners such as Crawford, who are challenging them.

In Texas, the company already has easement agreements with 99 percent of the landowners along the pipeline route, TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said in an email to the Los Angeles Times.

"The eminent domain process is well-established, and we follow the process that is set out by law in each state," he said, adding that the company was committed to treating landowners "with honesty, fairness and respect, to work with them and come up with the best possible solution."

The issue of acquiring easements for pipelines through condemnation has been thrown topsy-turvy in Texas by a 2011 state Supreme Court decision.

It raised serious questions about whether energy companies can simply declare themselves "common carriers" providing a public benefit - and thus entitled to obtain pipeline easements through condemnation proceedings - rather than operators of private pipelines, who would not have the power of eminent domain.

Until that decision, a company such as TransCanada merely had to check a box on a form filed with the Texas Railroad Commission to declare itself a common carrier. But the high court declared that practice, in at least some cases, unconstitutional, and energy companies have petitioned for a rehearing. The court is considering such requests.

"It just kind of shuts down the pipeline business if they don't have the right of eminent domain," Austin attorney John McFarland said in an interview. McFarland recently wrote an analysis of what is known as the Denbury case.

Crawford, who is managing a farm her grandfather bought in 1948, is challenging TransCanada's legal entitlement to declare itself a common carrier and is seeking relief from the courts under state laws protecting Native American antiquities, of which she said there are many on her property. Lamar County Court-at-Law Judge Bill Harris granted a temporary restraining order earlier this month prohibiting TransCanada from making use of Crawford's land until the issue can be decided. TransCanada went to court on Friday to have the restraining order dissolved, and the judge said he would take the issue under advisement