Important Updates
A new ordinance seeks to place a Climate Bill of Rights on…
Blog, Community Wires, Corporate 'Rights', Extraction & Pollution, News, Rights of Nature
Community Rights organizing began in Pennsylvania over two decades ago. Since then,…
Blog, Community Wires, News
As climate change brings suffering across the globe, in New Hampshire Judge…
Community Rights, News, Press Release
Sep 9, 2021
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 | Blog, Democratic Rights, NewsAug 29, 2021
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”.
Read More | Democratic Rights, EventsJul 4, 2021
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 | Blog, Defunding Violence, Democratic Rights, News, UncategorizedJun 3, 2021
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.
Read More | Corporate Agriculture, Democratic Rights, News, Press Release, Rights of NatureJun 1, 2021
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 »
Read More | Blog, Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, NewsMay 21, 2021
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 »
Read More | Blog, Chemical Trespass, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, NewsApr 18, 2021
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 ReleaseApr 9, 2021
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, In The News, Issues, NewsFeb 28, 2021
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 | Blog, Democratic Rights, News, Success StoryFeb 1, 2021
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, In The News, News, Press Release, ResourcesJan 8, 2021
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 | Blog, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, News, Rights of NatureJan 4, 2021
Coverage on the ongoing Rights of Nature efforts in Grant Township – see the full original article by the Indiana Gazette.
Read More | Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, In The News, NewsDec 24, 2020
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 ReleaseDec 15, 2020
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 NatureSep 6, 2020
Rights of Nature advocates caution against handing over Rights of Nature oversight to the Democratic Party.
Read More | Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Corporate Agriculture, Democratic Rights, In The News, IssuesJul 20, 2020
Canadian honors student, Camylle Lanteigne, unpacks the connection between anticapitalism and ecocentrism in the Rights of Nature Movement. Her research focuses on CELDF’s philosophy as a framework for her arguments.
Read More | Community Wires, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Rights of NatureAug 21, 2019
Williams County, Ohio, residents partner with CELDF to fight for their right to vote in the Ohio Supreme Court.
Read More | Community Wires, Democratic Rights, News, Press Release