Democratic Rights Archives

Mar 24, 2023

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:<br>Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:
Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage

A more honest report on the East Palestine disaster and details how the system itself is to blame and why these horrific and deadly events keep happening and our communities and nature keep bearing the brunt.

Mar 22, 2023

In Times of Increasing Uncertainty, We Already Have What We Need

We must start trusting in ourselves and in our community members to be able to meet our needs, solve our problems and create truly participatory community-based forms of government and public spaces.

Mar 10, 2023

Conservation Today: Kai Huschke and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Kai Huschke, with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, talks to us about the hierarchy of community rights, states rights, and corporate rights.

Jan 16, 2023

Guest Blog: Badges and Incidents of Slavery

The challenge: How to overcome the white dominance/Black subordination relationship. How to decolonize.

Tumbled by the surf: Figuring out which wave to ride next for recognizing rights

We must think about our history- the Revolutionaries were proposing an alternative to being a colony of England, abolitionists were fighting for an alternative to slavery, the suffragists for an alternative to patriarchy and on and on.

Wouldn’t You Say? – Materialism is Substance Abuse, Literally

Let’s be generous and call the COP–15 agreement a plan for conserving 1% of Earth’s biodiversity. That means that negotiators agreed to sacrifice 99% of Earth’s remaining biodiversity on the altar of human consumption for profit.

Dec 20, 2022

Grant’s Fight is Our Fight

As we head into the new year, please join us in continuing to stand with Grant Township. And let’s not only support them with words or dollars, but also follow their lead and bravely build on their efforts in the communities where we live.

Nov 8, 2022

Wouldn’t You Say? – What Do We Mean by “Community Rights?”

Lakota advocate and water protector Debra White Plume (Wioweya Najin Wina), upon being introduced to the history of municipal subjugation in the United States during a Democracy School hosted by residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, remarked that “municipalities are the white man’s reservations. The only difference is, we know we’re on reservations.”

Sep 13, 2022

Chile’s Rejection

How could Chileans, after rising up in October 2019 to demand a new constitution, then voting by an overwhelming majority to initiate the constituent process, reject the proposed draft? Why would they align with right-wing forces seeking to preserve the Pinochet constitution? This astonishing result surely demands a multi-causal explanation.

Aug 21, 2022

Wouldn’t You Say? – Municipal Maze

Refuse to be complacent. Refuse to be complicit. Refuse to be irrelevant.

Aug 5, 2022

Wouldn’t You Say? – Community Self-Government

Do you know what’s not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution? For one thing, government by the people.

Jul 19, 2022

Wouldn’t You Say? – Property

The Right to Property is Inalienable, Right?
Some rights are defined as inalienable, meaning that they can’t be taken away from you. Heck, you can’t even sell them, trade them, or give them away.

May 4, 2022

A Court Hearing for Grant Township: Eight Years Later, and Still No Injection Well

As many are aware, CELDF has stood with the people and ecosystems of Grant Township (Indiana County, PA, population 700) in their courageous efforts to keep a frack waste injection well out of the community.

Mar 22, 2022

Podcast with GrassRoot Ohio: Death by Democracy- Episode 2 – w/ Tish O’Dell

Carolyn Harding with Tish O’Dell, a powerful voice for justice in Ohio, the US, and Globally. Tish has been a Community Organizer for CELDF (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) since 2012 assisting residents to organize rights-based initiatives in their communities in order to help them “make real” the just and sustainable communities they envision for… Read more »

Mar 10, 2022

“New Normal” Needs a New Constitutional Amendment

“New Normal” Needs a New Constitutional Amendment discussion from the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference PIELC.

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.

Read More | Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Rights of Nature

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

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”.

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 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 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 »

Apr 18, 2021

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

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

Feb 28, 2021

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 1, 2021

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.

Jan 8, 2021

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.

Jan 4, 2021

$Grant Township sued again over refusal to allow fracking water$

Grant Township sued again over refusal to allow fracking water

Coverage on the ongoing Rights of Nature efforts in Grant Township – see the full original article by the Indiana Gazette.

Dec 24, 2020

‘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.

Dec 15, 2020

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.

Sep 6, 2020

Earth Defenders Warn Against Democrats Undermining ‘Rights of Nature’ Movement With Watered-Down Approach

Rights of Nature advocates caution against handing over Rights of Nature oversight to the Democratic Party.

Jul 20, 2020

THESIS: Anticapitalism and Environmentalism in the American Rights of Nature Movement

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.

Aug 21, 2019

Press Release: Democracy Challenged in Williams County, Petitioners Appeal to Ohio Supreme Court Again

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 Releases

Announcing CELDF's Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

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

New Book: ‘Death by Democracy’

Democratic Rights

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:
Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage

In Times of Increasing Uncertainty, We Already Have What We Need

Conservation Today: Kai Huschke and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Guest Blog: Badges and Incidents of Slavery

Tumbled by the surf: Figuring out which wave to ride next for recognizing rights

Wouldn’t You Say? – Materialism is Substance Abuse, Literally

Grant’s Fight is Our Fight

Wouldn’t You Say? – What Do We Mean by “Community Rights?”

Chile’s Rejection

Wouldn’t You Say? – Municipal Maze

Wouldn’t You Say? – Community Self-Government

Wouldn’t You Say? – Property

A Court Hearing for Grant Township: Eight Years Later, and Still No Injection Well

Podcast with GrassRoot Ohio: Death by Democracy- Episode 2 – w/ Tish O’Dell

“New Normal” Needs a New Constitutional Amendment

BOOK FOREWORD: Empowering Municipal Sustainability

Newsletter: Non-Linear Change

Preemption Workshop

Guest Blog: How Qualified Immunity Subverts the Rule of Law

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: Featured Online Film Screenings

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

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

Introducing CELDF 2021: A New Year, A New Structure

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

Newsletter: Momentum for Constitutional Change in Pennsylvania

Grant Township sued again over refusal to allow fracking water

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

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

Earth Defenders Warn Against Democrats Undermining ‘Rights of Nature’ Movement With Watered-Down Approach

THESIS: Anticapitalism and Environmentalism in the American Rights of Nature Movement

Press Release: Democracy Challenged in Williams County, Petitioners Appeal to Ohio Supreme Court Again

Support just, fair, and sustainable communities

Announcing CELDF's Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

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

New Book: ‘Death by Democracy’

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage

In Times of Increasing Uncertainty, We Already Have What We Need

Conservation Today: Kai Huschke and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Guest Blog: Badges and Incidents of Slavery

Tumbled by the surf: Figuring out which wave to ride next for recognizing rights

Wouldn’t You Say? – Materialism is Substance Abuse, Literally

Grant’s Fight is Our Fight

Wouldn’t You Say? – What Do We Mean by “Community Rights?”

Chile’s Rejection

Wouldn’t You Say? – Municipal Maze

Wouldn’t You Say? – Community Self-Government

Wouldn’t You Say? – Property

A Court Hearing for Grant Township: Eight Years Later, and Still No Injection Well

Podcast with GrassRoot Ohio: Death by Democracy- Episode 2 – w/ Tish O’Dell

“New Normal” Needs a New Constitutional Amendment

BOOK FOREWORD: Empowering Municipal Sustainability

Newsletter: Non-Linear Change

Preemption Workshop

Guest Blog: How Qualified Immunity Subverts the Rule of Law

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: Featured Online Film Screenings

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

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

Introducing CELDF 2021: A New Year, A New Structure

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

Newsletter: Momentum for Constitutional Change in Pennsylvania

Grant Township sued again over refusal to allow fracking water

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

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

Earth Defenders Warn Against Democrats Undermining ‘Rights of Nature’ Movement With Watered-Down Approach

THESIS: Anticapitalism and Environmentalism in the American Rights of Nature Movement

Press Release: Democracy Challenged in Williams County, Petitioners Appeal to Ohio Supreme Court Again

Support just, fair, and sustainable communities

The Trains Don’t Always Run on Time:
Yet the System Keeps Rolling, and We’re Just Collateral Damage