News From the Community Rights Movement

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May 20, 2021

CELDF Sponsors Nationwide Screenings of New Award-Winning Documentary ‘The People vs. Agent Orange’

CELDF Sponsors Nationwide Screenings of New Award-Winning Documentary ‘The People vs. Agent Orange’

The new award-winning documentary “The People vs. Agent Orange” is now screening in theaters near you! The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund 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,… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Events, Issues, News, Uncategorized

May 9, 2021

Newsletter: The Rights of Nature Are Blooming

Newsletter: The Rights of Nature Are Blooming

It’s happening. The Rights of Nature movement is exploding as communities rise up around the world to demand a paradigm shift in our legal system’s relationship to the earth and her ecosystems. So far in 2021, Rights of Nature has advanced in places including Oaxaca, Mexico, through a constitutional proposal; France, where a network of… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, News

May 5, 2021

Guest Blog: Energy Democracy: Community Rights in New Hampshire

Guest Blog: Energy Democracy: Community Rights in New Hampshire

By Barbara Peterson Nottingham, New Hampshire is fighting for a clean and healthy community Energy democracy works for local control of our energy sources. The global movement for energy democracy works with communities for local control of renewable sources of energy to help ensure equity, reliability, availability, and affordability. As stated by Denise Fairchild and… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, News

Apr 27, 2021

High Stakes For Democracy — Lawyer to Court: Are the People Equal to the Government or Not?

High Stakes For Democracy — Lawyer to Court: Are the People Equal to the Government or Not?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tish O’DellCommunity Environmental Legal Defense FundCommunity OrganizerCELDF.orgtish@celdf.org440-552-6774 Oral arguments presented in civil rights appeal in the critical case for direct democracy arising from suppression of Rights of Nature and local democracy petitioning. Cincinnati, OH: Oral arguments took place last week in Beiersdorfer v. LaRose, et al. (No. 20-3557), a case that begs fundamental… Read more »

Read More | News, Press Releases

Apr 26, 2021

Financial Threats to Rights of Nature Lawmaking

Financial Threats to Rights of Nature Lawmaking

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Michelle SanbornCommunity Environmental Legal Defense FundCommunity Organizermichelle@celdf.org603-524-2468 Corporate ‘person’ uses constitutional rights law to justify attorney fees from the Town of Nottingham, targeting people’s use of direct democracy for climate action. NOTTINGHAM, NH: Corporate personhood “rights” are once again being weaponized to financially punish and intimidate a local community that took a… Read more »

Read More | Community Rights, Press Releases

Apr 18, 2021

ADVISORY: Oral Arguments in Civil Rights Appeal Advancing Rights of Nature and Local Democracy in Ohio

ADVISORY: Oral Arguments in Civil Rights Appeal Advancing Rights of Nature and Local Democracy in Ohio

Oral arguments in a federal civil rights case against the State of Ohio have been scheduled. Plaintiffs from seven Ohio counties, representing Rights of Nature laws and other measures protecting local democracy from corporate special interests. Plaintiffs are petitioners for local initiative campaigns that were all successfully qualified various measures that were blocked from the ballot.

Read More | Community Rights, Democratic Rights, News, Press Releases

Apr 9, 2021

Columbus Free Press: Lawsuit To Protect Direct Democracy In Columbus During The Pandemic Dismissed By Court

Columbus Free Press: Lawsuit To Protect Direct Democracy In Columbus During The Pandemic Dismissed By Court

A lawsuit seeking a temporary suspension of Columbus’ one-year petitioning time limit due to the pandemic was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio on April 14, 2021. The lawsuit was filed in June 2020 by our group, Columbus Community Bill of Rights (CCBOR), arguing that the city’s time limit during the COVID-19 pandemic was unconstitutional and placed a severe burden on ballot access for our initiative, which sought to ban harms from the fracking industry within Columbus and it’s watershed area.

Read More | Democratic Rights, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots

Mar 17, 2021

Clara Township Residents Move to Ban Frack Waste Dumping

Clara Township Residents Move to Ban Frack Waste Dumping

Clara Township residents move forward with a Home Rule Charter initiative to protect vital waterways and assert the democratic rights of the community. Nearly half of all registered voters have signed on in support of the measure. Roulette Oil and Gas LLC (ROGC) applied for a Class II Injection Well Permit.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Issues, Press Releases

Mar 3, 2021

International Rights of Nature Solidarity

International Rights of Nature Solidarity

Following international support for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, CELDF is honored to work in solidarity with a new French-speaking network to advance Rights of Nature in Europe.

Read More | News, Press Releases, Rights of Nature

Feb 28, 2021

Introducing CELDF 2021: A New Year, A New Structure

Introducing CELDF 2021: A New Year, A New Structure

A new democratic structure will empower collaboration and expansion CELDF just celebrated its 25th birthday. Now, we’re investing in the next 25 years. For decades, our staff have spearheaded issues few others would touch. CELDF was years ahead of the curve on Rights of Nature and a structural demand for local community self-determination to counteract… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Democratic Rights, News, Success Story

Feb 25, 2021

Invisible Hand Screening and Live Q&A: Cincinnati

Invisible Hand Screening and Live Q&A: Cincinnati

This event is hosted by Cincinnati World Cinema and Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (CROW)

Read More | Uncategorized

Feb 21, 2021

Support Grows for Rights of Wetlands

Support Grows for Rights of Wetlands

CELDF officially endorsed a proposal for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands, organized by lawyers and scientists with the Society of Wetland Scientists’ Rights of Wetlands and Climate Change and Wetlands initiatives. The group is planning to share the Declaration with the 171 signatory countries of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention), and inviting them to work with others to move toward a framework that ensures the rights of wetlands are understood, respected, and upheld.

Read More | Issues, Press Releases, Rights of Nature

Feb 15, 2021

For All to See: Bias of New Hampshire Judiciary Exposed in Rights of Nature, Healthy Climate Proceedings

For All to See: Bias of New Hampshire Judiciary Exposed in Rights of Nature, Healthy Climate Proceedings

In 2019, Nottingham residents passed a Freedom from Chemical Trespass Ordinance securing the rights of ecosystems and of townspeople to a “climate system capable of sustaining human societies.” Now New Hampshire courts have sided with corporations who infringe on those rights, revealing a pattern of bias embedded within the New Hampshire judiciary.

Read More | News, Press Releases, Rights of Nature

Feb 6, 2021

Public Interest Environmental Law Conference Panel: 2021

Public Interest Environmental Law Conference Panel: 2021

Rights of Nature Panel Discussion 1:00 PM -2:30 pm EST It is neither acceptable nor is it necessary to poison the environment to engage in commerce. In fact, it is the antithesis of a sustainable, resilient, and responsible economy. But to stop harmful unsustainable developments like Jordan Cove and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, determined environmental… Read more »

Read More | Events, Rights of Nature

Feb 4, 2021

Common Dreams: Biden’s Executive Order on Climate Crisis Exposes Need for Constitutional Change

Common Dreams: Biden’s Executive Order on Climate Crisis Exposes Need for Constitutional Change

Demands to abolish the Electoral College and restructure the U.S. Supreme Court can be pegged to substantive constitutional change. It’s the role of movements to demand and make changes to the “applicable law,” and its interpretation.

Read More | News, News from the Grassroots

Feb 2, 2021

Protect the Protectors: Stop Line 3

Protect the Protectors: Stop Line 3

Tribal nations, community and environmental groups in Minnesota have fought to stop the Line 3 Enbridge pipeline in Northern Minnesota. The pipeline violates several treaties with the Ojibwe people that establish their right to hunt, fish, and gather along the proposed route. The pipeline would cross 200 bodies of water, including the Mississippi River twice.

Read More | Corporate 'Rights', Extraction & Pollution, Issues, Rights of Nature

Feb 1, 2021

New Book! ‘The World We Need: Highlights, Stories and Lessons From America’s Unsung Environmental Movement’

New Book! ‘The World We Need: Highlights, Stories and Lessons From America’s Unsung Environmental Movement’

The World We Need offers a vivid look at the people protecting America’s communities against environmental degradation and racism. Their strategies for saving lives, protecting land, and creating opportunities provide a model for activists everywhere.

Read More | Community Rights, Democratic Rights, News, News from the Grassroots, Press Releases, Resources

Feb 1, 2021

Beyond Earth Day

Beyond Earth Day

An Earth Day Webinar Series Each year we celebrate the failed environmental policies associated with the so-called modern environmental movement on Earth Day. Despite this global celebration and calls to action, the climate crisis and ecosystem collapse continue to intensify. For too long we have been led to believe our federal regulations and agencies were… Read more »

Read More | Uncategorized

Jan 18, 2021

Newsletter: New Hampshire Pamphlet

Newsletter: New Hampshire Pamphlet

To advance political education in the Granite State, the New Hampshire Community Rights Network (NHCRN) has compiled an in-depth pamphlet to explore a transformation of New Hampshire’s form of government.

Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, News, Water Privitization

Jan 8, 2021

Newsletter: Momentum for Constitutional Change in Pennsylvania

Newsletter: Momentum for Constitutional Change in Pennsylvania

In 2020, members of the Pennsylvania Community Rights Network engaged in a statewide support campaign for a state constitutional amendment to place the rights of people over the interests of private corporations – empowering communities to heighten state protections for civil, human and ecosystem rights.

Read More | Blogs, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, News, Rights of Nature

Jan 4, 2021

Guest Blog: Talking Trash With South Philly’s Trash Academy

Guest Blog: Talking Trash With South Philly’s Trash Academy

Trash Academy​ (a program of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Environmental Justice Institute) approaches the issue of trash and litter in urban neighborhoods by putting the situation in its proper historical and socio-political context as they recognize the problem cannot be addressed without acknowledging pre-existing systems of exploitation and oppression.

Read More | Uncategorized

Jan 4, 2021

Newsletter: Moments of Transition

Newsletter: Moments of Transition

The following is an excerpt from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund’s End of Year 2020 newsletter “Moments of Transition

Read More | Blogs, News

Jan 1, 2021

Host an online event with CELDF

Host an online event with CELDF

There is a lot we can do from home. Here are a few ideas. Organize an Online Democracy School CELDF now offers a virtual version of its Democracy School. The four modules educate the public about rights-based organizing, inform participants about how the system under which we currently live undermines traditional activism, and introduce strategies… Read more »

Read More | Uncategorized

Dec 28, 2020

Observing Revolution: Pennsylvania

Observing Revolution: Pennsylvania

Newsletter: CELDF has supported the efforts of Grant Township, PA as they engage in local lawmaking to successfully resist corporate contamination of water. Despite years of legal attacks by the private corporations, PA regulatory agencies, and the oil and gas industry, local residents of Grant Township have reasserted and continued to defend local lawmaking and protect the natural systems that sustain them.

Read More | Blogs, News

Dec 24, 2020

‘The Courts Are a Sham’: New Hampshire Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Rights of Nature, Healthy Climate Arguments

‘The Courts Are a Sham’: New Hampshire Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Rights of Nature, Healthy Climate Arguments

New Hampshire Supreme Court Refuses to hear arguments on Rights of Nature and the right to a Healthy Climate. Amidst ecological catastrophe, movements for a paradigm shift in law have made global gains in 2020. Granite State judges have chosen to reject a request for a people’s defense of a municipal Rights of Nature and healthy climate law.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, News, Press Releases

Dec 21, 2020

CELDF Endorses Proposal for Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands

CELDF Endorses Proposal for Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands

A group of authors organized through the Society of Wetland Scientists have developed a proposal for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands. CELDF is excited to endorse the efforts as a step toward recognizing and enforcing the rights of wetlands.

Read More | News, Press Releases & Blogs, Rights of Nature

Dec 17, 2020

Guest Blog: John Marshall: A Case Study of Institutional Racism

Guest Blog: John Marshall: A Case Study of Institutional Racism

This essay discusses our courts of law as epitomes of institutional racism and the role played by Former Chief Justice John Marshall. This guest blog is part of a continuing effort to re-name law schools after Former Chief Justice Marshall, who owned over 200 slaves. Dealing with institutional racist past and trying to right some of the wrongs.

Read More | Community Wires, News, Press Releases & Blogs

Dec 15, 2020

BREAKING: Gas Company Files Federal Lawsuit To Overturn Small Pennsylvania Township’s Rights of Nature Law…Again

BREAKING: Gas Company Files Federal Lawsuit To Overturn Small Pennsylvania Township’s Rights of Nature Law…Again

Gas company PGE sues Grant Township over democratically enacted law. The PA Department of Environmental Protection also sued Grant in 2017, making this filing the third lawsuit against the Township (pop. 700) for trying to protect its drinking water.

Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, Issues, Press Releases & Blogs, Rights of Nature

Dec 11, 2020

Truthout: The American Petroleum Institute Is Working to Kill Voting on Local Measures

Truthout: The American Petroleum Institute Is Working to Kill Voting on Local Measures

Over the past five years, organizers in seven Ohio communities (three cities, four counties) have qualified ballot measures to recognize enforceable rights of ecosystems and human rights to water. All take the historic and bold step of elevating these basic rights above the legal privileges currently enjoyed by private corporations in the United States.

Read More | Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Corporate Agriculture, Extraction & Pollution, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Dec 10, 2020

Virtual Democracy School in Florida

Virtual Democracy School in Florida

Register today for this virtual Democracy School!

Read More | Events

Dec 8, 2020

Virtual Democracy School in Virginia

Virtual Democracy School in Virginia

Register today for this virtual Democracy School in Virginia!

Read More | Events

Dec 6, 2020

Remembering Debra White Plume

Remembering Debra White Plume

Seen through her guileless eyes, the humble truth of our kinship and solidarity beneath the real—though disproportionately unequal—oppressions of empire, became clear.

Read More | Community Wires

Dec 4, 2020

Common Dreams: Rights of Nature Debate Reaches New Heights

Common Dreams: Rights of Nature Debate Reaches New Heights

A bill was just proposed in Missouri to ban Rights of Nature litigation, the American Petroleum Institute just filed a brief to oppose local Rights of Nature laws, as the Democratic Party shows interest in the concept.

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Dec 2, 2020

Oregon: How Corporate Constitutional Rights Came to Be and How They Control Our Communities

Oregon: How Corporate Constitutional Rights Came to Be and How They Control Our Communities

Save the Date! Join the Oregon Community Rights Network in this upcoming event on corporate constitutional rights.

Read More | Community Wires, Events

Nov 27, 2020

Virtual Democracy School in Ashtabula

Virtual Democracy School in Ashtabula

Register today for this virtual Democracy School in Ashtabula, Ohio! Co-sponsored by Ashtabula County Water Watch and CELDF.

Read More | Events

Nov 10, 2020

Observing Revolution: New Hampshire

Observing Revolution: New Hampshire

Building statewide momentum across New Hampshire. A 2020 organizing update featured in our fall newsletter.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 6, 2020

Remembering a Rights of Nature Warrior

Remembering a Rights of Nature Warrior

Reekumani Greendeer was a fierce advocate for Nature. We will honor his memory through continued efforts for the Rights of Nature.

Read More | Community Wires

Nov 4, 2020

CELDF Statement on Orange County, FL ‘Rights of Nature’ Law

CELDF Statement on Orange County, FL ‘Rights of Nature’ Law

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) has prepared the following statement in response to the passage of the Wekiva River and Econlockhatchee River Bill of Rights.

Read More | Blogs, News, Rights of Nature

Nov 2, 2020

Defunding the Police

Defunding the Police

The call for change is clear – we need to rethink how we allocate resources to ensure we are meeting the needs of the community. The realization that existing laws have the dual goals of appearing to protect us while in reality doing the exact opposite is long overdue.

Read More | Blogs, Defunding Violence, News

Oct 28, 2020

Times of System Change

Times of System Change

Protests are shifting the conditions of political action. Immediate structural change may be difficult to see – but it’s happening – culture is shifting. A dedicated and defiant movement is emerging and challenging the purpose of the law.

Read More | Blogs, Newsletters, Press Releases & Blogs

Oct 16, 2020

Protecting the Salish Sea in the Time of Covid-19

Protecting the Salish Sea in the Time of Covid-19

Read More | Events

Oct 9, 2020

Defending ‘Peaceful Change’: Friend of the Court Briefs Representing Over 500,000 Supporters Filed in Ohio Civil Rights Lawsuit Appeal

Defending ‘Peaceful Change’: Friend of the Court Briefs Representing Over 500,000 Supporters Filed in Ohio Civil Rights Lawsuit Appeal

Plaintiffs from seven Ohio counties, representing Rights of Nature and corporate control ballot measures, sued the Ohio Secretary of State and Boards of Election officials in trial court for repeatedly keeping binding citizen-proposed laws and charters off the ballot. Several national organizations have filed amicus briefs in support of the appeal.

Read More | Press Releases, Press Releases & Blogs