News From the Community Rights Movement - Page 4 of 30

Oct 11, 2021

Transnational Institute of Social Ecology 2021 Conference

Bookchin recognized that social ecology will advance the cause of social and environmental justice by activating communities on many fronts. Uniting parallel efforts can actualize social ecology’s goals.

Read More | Events, News from the Grassroots

Oct 9, 2021

BOOK FOREWORD: Empowering Municipal Sustainability

They say that knowledge is power, but it’s not true. Knowledge fuels our actions and our actions are power.

Oct 8, 2021

Book: The Politics of Rights of Nature

How Rights of Nature laws are transforming governance to address environmental crises through more ecologically sustainable approaches to development.

Read More | News, Publications, Rights of Nature

Oct 7, 2021

Columbus Free Press: Beware the Brine

Members of OHCRN have called on Ohio’s Attorney General, Dave Yost, to open an investigation into the violation of Ohio law and the criminal actions of state officials and industry who were and are well aware that this brine is highly radioactive, yet still approve and allow it to be spread in Ohio communities.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, News from the Grassroots

Oct 4, 2021

A Tribute to Gail Mills

Gail Mills of Nottingham, NH, passed away this month, having paid forward a legacy of community activism that inspired local activists across the country.

NCRN hosts a conversation with CELDF lawyers

Join the NCRN in conversation with Karen Hoffman, Kira Kelly, Terry Lodge, and Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin

Read More | Events

Sep 27, 2021

Playing Demolition Derby with Our Democratic Rights

Please join us October 6th for a deep dive into 21st Century democracy with our presenters, Kai Huschke, Community Organizer and Terry Lodge, attorney for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Read More | Events

Sep 23, 2021

Corporation Asks Nottingham, N.H. For Legal Fees After Suing Over Climate Ordinance

The Freedom From Chemical Trespass Rights-Based Ordinance asserted residents’ rights to a healthy climate and banned corporate activities that would interfere with those rights, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 per day.

Sep 17, 2021

Newsletter: Ohio Update

Ohio communities over the past decade have worked hard to protect ecosystems and their communities from various harmful projects. They did the work of asserting democratic rights to alter and reform their government. They collected signatures, argued in court, battled in lopsided campaigns and even won a few only to have the courts overturn their… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Community Wires, News

Sep 15, 2021

Invisible Hand Film Showing and Conversation

Join us on September 29, at 6:30 pm CET, for a virtual screening of the award-winning film Invisible Hand, a documentary exploring the global Rights of Nature movement, followed by a conversation with key actors and organizers of the movement from both America and Europe. 48 hours before the event, you will receive a link and… Read more »

Read More | Events

Sep 15, 2021

Newsletter: New England Update

Residents are blowing the whistle on large-scale industrial solar arrays that require the cutting of old-growth forests in favor of destructive greenwashing.

Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, News

Sep 14, 2021

Newsletter: Pacific Northwest Updates

Invisible Hand, the rebirth of the WACRN, and updates from the West Coast.

Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, News, News from the Grassroots

Sep 13, 2021

Newsletter: Building a Movement in Pennsylvania

Community Rights organizing began in Pennsylvania over two decades ago. Since then, dozens of local laws have been adopted that ban everything from factory farms, to the spreading of sewage sludge, to oil and gas fracking and pipelines.

Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, News, News from the Grassroots

Sep 13, 2021

Corporation Demands $40,281.50 From Town For Passing Climate Ordinance

As climate change brings suffering across the globe, in New Hampshire Judge Martin Honigberg has sided with a local corporate actor who seeks financial retribution against the Town of Nottingham for the popular adoption of an ordinance recognizing a right of townspeople to a “climate system capable of sustaining human societies.” On September 1, 2021 the sole corporate actor, Brent Tweed, of G&F Goods, LLC submitted a $40,281.50 bill to the court for attorney fees.

Sep 10, 2021

Newsletter: Asheville Climate Bill of Rights Begins Signature Gathering

A new ordinance seeks to place a Climate Bill of Rights on the 2022 ballot, which explicitly challenges North Carolina’s infamous state preemption scheme and privileges afforded private corporations.

Sep 9, 2021

Newsletter: Non-Linear Change

As we organize to make change while environmental and racial injustice run rampant, and as drought and a poisonous status quo threaten the conditions for life, identifying where to invest time and energy can be as complex as getting to know another human being. Nothing about forming relationships follows a straight line.

Read More | Blogs, Democratic Rights, News

Sep 8, 2021

Newsletter: Updates on Defunding Violence

The Defunding Violence Ordinance has been circulating in activist communities across the country. It continues to be a living document that both informs and is informed by grassroots efforts to defund and depower the institution of policing.

Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, Defunding Violence, News

Aug 29, 2021

Preemption Workshop

On Thursday, September 9 at 6:30 pm, please join us for a workshop by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) “Preemption as a Lethal Weapon: How Corporations and Government are Deliberately Destroying Communities and Nature”.

Conversation: United Church of Christ Becomes First Mainline Church Body to Declare Earth has Rights

The General Synod of the United Church of Christ has become the first mainline Protestant body to publicly proclaim that nature has rights.

Aug 17, 2021

Just Compensation

The courts of the empire may rely on self-referential legalisms to declare that the original indigenous inhabitants never had legal claim to ownership of the land, or that the U.S. Constitution did not, at the time, recognize enslaved people as capable of owning anything, including their own lives and labor; hence nothing recognized as legal property was taken from them and no compensation is owed. Typical judicial gaslighting.

International Agent Orange Day: Aug. 10

Efforts by both female protagonists in ‘The People vs. Agent Orange’ film have been suppressed since the award winning documentary was released.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, News, Press Releases

Aug 5, 2021

Abolitionist Legal Self Defense Webinar

Join us for a conversation to share legal self-defense best practices and to critique the role of police in stabilizing an oppressive status quo.

Rights of Nature Principles

CELDF has been involved in establishing legal Rights for Nature in Western law for over two decades, from the beginning of this movement’s contemporary phase. We recognize that institutionalizing the Rights of Nature requires a cultural paradigm shift that challenges and changes our legal, social, and moral behavior. For life on Earth to survive, and… Read more »

Read More | Issues, Resource Links, Rights of Nature

Jul 30, 2021

Columbus Free Press: Stifling Democracy?

One citizen-led initiative makes it on November’s ballot but the other is denied By Free Press Staff The citizen-led ProEnergy Ohio ballot initiative is likely making Columbus City Council, the Mayor’s Office and the Columbus Partnership take serious pause. Many believed the initiative was doomed, yet it made it on November’s ballot. Unfortunately, another environmental… Read more »

Read More | Uncategorized

Jul 29, 2021

Youth Declaration on the Rights of Nature and Future Generations

Earth Law Center and the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) Youth Hub led two sessions on “Youth and the Rights of Nature Movement: shifting the paradigm for all future generations” at the first IUCN Global Youth Summit April 7-9. As a result of the Rights of Nature sessions, a Declaration was drafted.… Read more »

Read More | Community Wires, Issues, News, Resource Links, Rights of Nature

Jul 29, 2021

Glen Ford, Veteran Journalist And Founder Of Black Agenda Report, Dies At 71

Glen Ford spent more than four decades delivering the news from a Black perspective on a national scale.

Guest Blog: Critical Race Theory

Put another way, critical race theory illuminates our historical record despite centuries-long efforts to whitewash it. White nationalists present “alternative facts” conducing to a zero-sum society of white winners and nonwhite losers.

Read More | Blogs, Defunding Violence, News

Jul 15, 2021

Oregon Community Rights Activists Undeterred by Court’s Validation of Timber’s Toxic Legacy

The Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon issued a one-page decision in late June upholding a trial court decision overriding the will of voters and siding with corporate timber. The court has allowed for the continued use of aerially sprayed pesticides.

Legal Talk Network: Lawyer 2 Lawyer Podcast

Tune in to Legal Talk Networks Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast featuring CELDF attorney, Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin. Listen as they discuss law and Nature and take a look at what rights we have to access Nature.

Read More | Issues, News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Jul 8, 2021

BREAKING: Civil Rights Leaders in One of Nation’s Poorest Cities Launch Environmental Justice, Ecosystem Rights Ballot Initiative

Petitioners in Reading, Pennsylvania have officially kicked off a campaign to amend the Reading City Charter to outlaw “toxic trespass,” the poisoning of people and the environment within the city. The ballot initiative is in response to unaddressed toxic waste and environmental racism in the post-industrial city.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, News, Press Releases

Jul 4, 2021

Guest Blog: How Qualified Immunity Subverts the Rule of Law

This guest submission was originally given as a graduation address on police reform. The author argues, our informed consent is what legitimizes government. And so it’s up to us to command all of our public servants, including cops. We the People must nullify the despotic doctrine so-called qualified immunity. The buck stops with every single citizen from their eighteenth birthday.

Read More | Blogs, Defunding Violence, Democratic Rights, News, Uncategorized

Jun 27, 2021

Appellate Court Rules Lincoln County Aerial Spray Ban Invalid

Lincoln County voters passed Measure 21-177, banning aerial pesticide spraying in the county in May of 2017. Representatives of the timber industry promptly sued to overturn the ban.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Wires, News

Jun 21, 2021

Ohio Residents Call On State Attorney General and 9 County Prosecuting Attorneys to Launch Criminal Investigations Into Radioactive Pollution in Waterways

Under a 2002 law, introducing radioactive elements into Ohio drinking water is a felony offense.
Companies are violating this by spreading oil and gas waste ‘brine’ — proven by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to contain radioactive concentrations that exceed federal and state standards — in critical watersheds. So are state actors, residents assert.

Jun 18, 2021

Invisible Hand Screening

From Executive Producer Mark Ruffalo comes INVISIBLE HAND, the world’s first documentary film on the Rights of Nature Movement. A “paradigm shifting” story about the fate of capitalism and democracy where we find out “Who speaks for Nature?

Read More | Events

Jun 16, 2021

National TV: ‘The People vs. Agent Orange’ to Air on PBS Independent Lens June 28th

Tune in on Monday June 28, 2021 for the national airing of the award-winning film “The People vs. Agent Orange” on PBS’ Independent Lens!

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Events, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots

Jun 10, 2021

Judge Rewards Corporation for Suing to Halt Implementation of Climate Ordinance, Orders Town to Pay Corporate Attorney Fees

As global carbon dioxide concentrations hit their highest level in 4 million years, a New Hampshire Judge has rewarded a local corporate actor in Nottingham for opposing a democratically adopted ordinance, the Freedom from Chemical Trespass Ordinance, that recognized a right of townspeople to a “climate system capable of sustaining human societies.”

Read More | Chemical Trespass, News, Press Releases

Jun 9, 2021

Clara Township Home Rule Commission Meets After Residents Vote To Consider New Government

Clara Township residents voted overwhelmingly to create a Home Rule Government Study Commission made up of seven elected Township residents.

Whose Constitution Is It?

Join CELDF attorney Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin for a presentation and discussion on the history and current significance of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. The presentation’s content inspired by Eric Foner’s 2019 book “The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.”

Read More | Uncategorized

Jun 3, 2021

Toledo Residents Give Judge Chance to Enforce Lake Erie Bill of Rights, Demand Immediate Protection for Lake Erie, Including Ban on Factory Farms

Toledo residents in a lawsuit to enforce the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) filed a memorandum of opposition to the State of Ohio’s motion for summary judgment in their case. Last August, after the trial court granted the State of Ohio’s motion to dismiss, the plaintiffs presented oral arguments in the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals to enforce LEBOR.

Jun 1, 2021

Newsletter: Confronting Law Schools

Law schools must reckon with the harm they have caused in perpetuating this oppressive system of law! Toward this end, CELDF has been honored to endorse a campaign to rename the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, named after former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. The justice, known for empowering corporations and the U.S. Supreme… Read more »

May 31, 2021

Newsletter: Building International Rights of Nature Solidarity

CELDF is honored to work in solidarity with a new French-speaking network to advance the Rights of Nature in Europe. The network includes Loire Parliament, Valentransition, A.R.B.R.E.S., id-eau, Notre Affaire à Tous and others. “We are now working to grow the network with other similar organizations and communities active in the defense of the ecosystems… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, News, Rights of Nature

May 30, 2021

The Rights of Nature in the U.S.A.: Legal and Social Debates

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET Join Carolina Public Humanities for a public screening of the acclaimed documentary “Invisible Hand” (2020) and dialogue with activists, advocates, and scholars on the current struggles and advancements of the rights of human and natural communities in the USA. Film Screening: 4:00-5:30 pm ETPanel Discussion: 5:45-6:45 pm ET Documentary:The… Read more »

Read More | Events

May 30, 2021

Oregon Community Rights Network: Community Rights Workshop

Why do we rarely win against corporations targeting our communities? How did we get to this place? SIMPLE.Corporations – and their allies – have been busy manufacturing a structure of law over the last 150 years that insulates them from community control. What will it take to change the current reality to deal with the issues… Read more »

Read More | Events

May 30, 2021

Invisible Hand Screening: Rights of Nature Network Atlantic Canada

7:30 PM Atlantic Time (Canada) Join us for a virtual screening of the award-winning film Invisible Hand, a documentary exploring the global Rights of Nature movement, followed by a Q&A with organizers from CELDF. Invisible Hand is a “paradigm-shifting” documentary about the ‘Rights of Nature’ Movement. The defining battle of our times where Nature, democracy, and… Read more »

Read More | Uncategorized

May 28, 2021

Podcast (Climate One): “Should Nature Have Rights?”

On May 28, 2021, CELDF’s Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin joined Rebecca Tsosie (constitutional and Indigenous law scholar of Yaqui descent and regents professor of law at the University of Arizona) and Carol Van Strum (Lincoln County Community Rights) on the nationally syndicated Climate One podcast.

Read More | News, News from the Grassroots

May 28, 2021

Rights of Nature, Rights of the People vs. State-Authorized Corporate Toxic Practice in Front of Oregon Courts

NEWPORT, OR: Arguments on the assertion of local democracy over state-sanctioned corporate public health violations and a Rights of Nature law will be presented on June 1. For over two years, the Freedom from Aerially Sprayed Pesticides Ordinance of Lincoln County successfully banned corporate aerial spraying of pesticides as a violation of natural ecosystems’ rights and people’s rights to clean air, water and soil.

Read More | Uncategorized

May 24, 2021

Newsletter: Collaborating With Academia

It will take many minds to birth a new legal and political paradigm. Engaging students and educators is critical. Toward that end, CELDF’s Chad Nicholson recently helped teach a short Rights of Nature seminar. Markie Miller presented at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference and at the University of Toledo. Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin is heading up… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, News, Rights of Nature

May 22, 2021

Common Dreams: Remembering Christopher D. Stone

Christopher Stone, the environmental scholar who championed fundamental rights of nature died at 83 on May 14, 2021. Stone was a legal scholar who argued in 1972 that trees, rivers, oceans and Nature itself possess fundamental legal rights, an argument that entered the bedrock of the modern environmental movement.

Read More | News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

May 21, 2021

Newsletter: Featured Online Film Screenings

The new award-winning documentary THE PEOPLE VS. AGENT ORANGE is now screening in theaters near you! CELDF is proud to sponsor limited nationwide screenings ahead of the national premiere on PBS, forthcoming in summer 2021. CELDF is sponsoring screenings in California, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and… Read more »

May 21, 2021

Newsletter: Community Justice

In a small living room in one of the most economically neglected neighborhoods in the State of Washington emerged the work of Envision Spokane. A handful of local activists and residents asked themselves the question “why?” Why, after so many years of advocacy work on behalf of neighborhoods, renters, the houseless, small businesses, the uninsured,… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, News, Worker Exploitation

Announcing CELDF's Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

Sneak Peek! -- End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

Book: ‘Death by Democracy’

Transnational Institute of Social Ecology 2021 Conference

BOOK FOREWORD: Empowering Municipal Sustainability

Book: The Politics of Rights of Nature

Columbus Free Press: Beware the Brine

A Tribute to Gail Mills

NCRN hosts a conversation with CELDF lawyers

Playing Demolition Derby with Our Democratic Rights

Corporation Asks Nottingham, N.H. For Legal Fees After Suing Over Climate Ordinance

Newsletter: Ohio Update

Invisible Hand Film Showing and Conversation

Newsletter: New England Update

Newsletter: Pacific Northwest Updates

Newsletter: Building a Movement in Pennsylvania

Corporation Demands $40,281.50 From Town For Passing Climate Ordinance

Newsletter: Asheville Climate Bill of Rights Begins Signature Gathering

Newsletter: Non-Linear Change

Newsletter: Updates on Defunding Violence

Preemption Workshop

Conversation: United Church of Christ Becomes First Mainline Church Body to Declare Earth has Rights

Just Compensation

International Agent Orange Day: Aug. 10

Abolitionist Legal Self Defense Webinar

Rights of Nature Principles

Columbus Free Press: Stifling Democracy?

Youth Declaration on the Rights of Nature and Future Generations

Glen Ford, Veteran Journalist And Founder Of Black Agenda Report, Dies At 71

Guest Blog: Critical Race Theory

Oregon Community Rights Activists Undeterred by Court’s Validation of Timber’s Toxic Legacy

Legal Talk Network: Lawyer 2 Lawyer Podcast

BREAKING: Civil Rights Leaders in One of Nation’s Poorest Cities Launch Environmental Justice, Ecosystem Rights Ballot Initiative

Guest Blog: How Qualified Immunity Subverts the Rule of Law

Appellate Court Rules Lincoln County Aerial Spray Ban Invalid

Ohio Residents Call On State Attorney General and 9 County Prosecuting Attorneys to Launch Criminal Investigations Into Radioactive Pollution in Waterways

Invisible Hand Screening

National TV: ‘The People vs. Agent Orange’ to Air on PBS Independent Lens June 28th

Judge Rewards Corporation for Suing to Halt Implementation of Climate Ordinance, Orders Town to Pay Corporate Attorney Fees

Clara Township Home Rule Commission Meets After Residents Vote To Consider New Government

Whose Constitution Is It?

Toledo Residents Give Judge Chance to Enforce Lake Erie Bill of Rights, Demand Immediate Protection for Lake Erie, Including Ban on Factory Farms

Newsletter: Confronting Law Schools

Newsletter: Building International Rights of Nature Solidarity

The Rights of Nature in the U.S.A.: Legal and Social Debates

Oregon Community Rights Network: Community Rights Workshop

Invisible Hand Screening: Rights of Nature Network Atlantic Canada

Podcast (Climate One): “Should Nature Have Rights?”

Rights of Nature, Rights of the People vs. State-Authorized Corporate Toxic Practice in Front of Oregon Courts

Newsletter: Collaborating With Academia

Common Dreams: Remembering Christopher D. Stone

Newsletter: Featured Online Film Screenings

Newsletter: Community Justice

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