We help communities and groups like yours.

We are not a typical environmental organization. We assist communities to develop first-in-the-nation, groundbreaking laws to protect rights – including worker, environmental, and democratic rights, and rights of nature. CELDF provides free and low cost legal services, grassroots organizing, and education, to communities, states, and countries facing injustice. We help them to assert their rights to fight the harms they face. Learn more about how we work, or call us now at: 717-498-0054.

Press Releases & Updates

Community Wires

News
July 27th – July 29th

We

the

People 2.0

The Secound American Revolution

Join us in Lancaster and Bethlehem, PA!
Get the details!

View All Upcoming Events

Featured Articles

Blog: 2016 – The Year Democracy Died?

July 26, 2016

While we may expect to see powerbrokers in both major political parties drown out grassroots voices, it's happening at the local level as well. Local government officials and the judiciary act as corporate allies, killing the right to initiative across the U.S.

Community Rights Paper #13: Breaking the Planet

June 9, 2016

Breaking the Planet takes an unflinching look at climate change, the legal and governing structures accelerating our own destruction, and the radical action necessary to cease the sweeping and violent damage being done to the planet, and us.

Blog: U.S. Mayors Embrace Community Rights, Condemn Legalization of Corporate Violence

July 24, 2016

More than thirty U.S. mayors from fourteen states call on state legislatures to recognize the right of localities to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their communities from fracking - a right CELDF has been working with communities to advance since 2010.

CELDF Celebrates 20 Years!

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund turns 20 years old! What began as a mission to help communities fight permits has evolved into a Community Rights Movement for people and nature.

Read More

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Funds CELDF's Work to Advance Rights to Local, Democratic Self-Governance and Rights of Nature

CELDF receives support from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

Read More

Is it Really ILLEGAL to Think Outside the Box?

What is it that keeps us from getting what we want in our communities? Why can’t we say, “No!” to harmful activities? The short answer is: THE LAW. A handful of legal doctrines make it illegal for communities to govern on important issues like fracking, factory farms, large-scale energy infrastructure projects and commercial water extraction.

Read More
A Problem: Corporations have been granted rights allowing them to wreak havoc in communities for over 200 years.
We can stop this. Here's how...

Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of our current legal system.

Learn how to better understand the issues of our time.

Discover the keys to affect lasting change.

Learn More

Show Your Support. Take Action Now.

  • Stand With Tacoma, WA, in Their Fight for Democratic Rights

    What happens in Tacoma when the people exercise their inalienable right to protect their water, and their democratic right to initiative? The corporate state strips those rights. But Tacomans are clear that they will protect their community and their water. The corporate elite’s attempts to intimidate them through the courts is failing.

    Stand up with the people of Tacoma as they fight to protect their right to water and their right to vote!

    Show Your Support

  • Sign Up Now to Support Youngstown, OH, Fighting for Community Rights

    Youngstown, OH, residents, like many communities across the U.S., live under a structure of law and governance that favors big business exploitation and profits over the democratic and environmental rights of communities. With the oil and gas industry and their own local government working against them, the Youngstown community refuses to give up.

    Sign up now to show support for their uncompromising commitment to protect their community.

    Show Your Support