Important Updates
Protecting Water and Life: Frontline Stories from Ohioans fighting corporate and state…
Publications
A new system of law based on respect for Nature and the…
Issues, News, Resources, Rights of Nature
FREE Gifts with tax-deductible year-end donations of $100 or more.
Newsletters
Jan 21, 2018
Why are attacks from the corporate state escalating against communities who are advancing basic rights and protecting themselves from harm? And what’s next?
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsJan 19, 2018
With House Joint Resolution 5 (HJR5), the Ohio legislature is sabotaging the people’s democratic rights.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsJan 17, 2018
Community Rights is growing, and this is the corporate state’s punitive response.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 15, 2018
Dr. Martin Luther King is remembered for his extraordinary leadership in advancing Civil Rights. Let us not forget, either, how the system he and his followers sought to change, punished them for doing so.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsJan 11, 2018
Protecting water means enforcing their Community Bill of Rights fracking ban, says Athens, OH, residents. The rights-based law was adopted overwhelmingly by residents in 2014.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 10, 2018
The people of Grant Township, PA, are fiercely defending their right to clean air and water. A federal judge sanctions two attorneys for standing with Grant and fighting for their rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 5, 2018
The corporate state’s judiciary punishes attorneys defending Grant Township, PA, residents against the oil and gas industry by imposing sanctions.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsJan 5, 2018
Abolitionists urged secession to end the slave state. Explore secession to end the corporate state.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsJan 3, 2018
Lafayette, CO, city council looks to defend its Right to Climate ordinance banning fracking activities, holding an open forum with CELDF on strategies to do so.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 22, 2017
As part of the growing Rights of Nature movement, this sacred mountain in New Zealand is now recognized as having rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 21, 2017
People have always risen up to right the wrongs inflicted by the ruling elite. That time has come again, and the people of New Hampshire are using Community Rights to end harmful exploitation of our communities.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 20, 2017
As part of the growing Rights of Nature movement, the first conservation easement in Hawaii recognizing the Rights of Nature now protects 8 acres of land on the island of Kaua’i.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsDec 14, 2017
The Rights of Nature is growing, from concept to practice. While regulations don’t protect nature or people, rights do.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 7, 2017
CELDF, the Ohio Community Rights Network, and Athens County, OH, residents are partnering together to advance democratic and environmental rights to all Ohio residents.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 7, 2017
Nature isn’t protected in our constitution. And so ecosystems, including our national monuments, are protected – or not – at the whim of current powerbrokers.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsDec 7, 2017
Two Community Rights state constitutional amendments advance in Ohio, meeting Ballot Board requirements for single subject. Residents are launching their signature gathering campaign.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryDec 7, 2017
Will Falk, as a “next friend” in the recently dismissed Colorado River v. State of Colorado lawsuit, examines the reality of our legal system – designed to protect property, not people or nature.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 2, 2017
The Colorado AG wants to shut down the rights of nature case, Colorado River v. State of Colorado. Supporters know the case is part of a growing movement to protect ecosystems by recognizing their rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 1, 2017
CELDF calls out the court in Tacoma, WA, for illegitimately vetoing the right of Tacomans to vote.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 30, 2017
As climate change accelerates unabated, growing numbers of people and communities are advancing Rights of Nature in court. In Colorado, the Attorney General uses threat of sanctions to shut it down.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 29, 2017
Jason Flores-Williams is arguing for the rights of the Colorado River in federal court and now faces sanctions for doing so. He is unflinching in his response.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 29, 2017
Communities across the country are rising up as corporate threats grow – including Ohio, where residents are advancing rights-based state constitutional amendments elevating Community Rights over corporate “rights.”
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryNov 28, 2017
Radio host Thom Hartmann interviews NH representative Ellen Read and CELDF’s Michelle Sanborn on the NH Community Rights state constitutional amendment. The interview begins at 31 minutes.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 28, 2017
Coming up against state preemption and corporate “rights,” Ohio residents say “no more!” They are working with CELDF to advance two state constitutional amendments that protect community and nature’s rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryNov 28, 2017
Ohio residents meet first hurdle in advancing two rights-based state constitutional amendments, drafted with CELDF and the Ohio Community Rights Network.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryNov 22, 2017
Growing algae in Lake Erie is driving Toledo, OH, residents to advance a Community Bill of Rights initiative, which would protect the Lake, recognizing its right to exist and flourish.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 20, 2017
A powerful exchange between a New Hampshire legislator and a New Hampshire resident on Community Rights.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsNov 18, 2017
Supporters of the federal lawsuit to recognize rights of the Colorado River look ahead to build momentum for the broader recognition of the rights of nature.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 17, 2017
Today, residents take action to protect democratic and environmental rights in Ohio, submitting two state constitutional amendments to the Ohio Attorney General.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryNov 17, 2017
Climate Disobedience Center’s Ken Ward lays bare what the Bonn climate talks are really about: 50 shades of climate denial. People on the ground and driven by necessity will do what is necessary to save the planet.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 15, 2017
Residents urge New Hampshire legislators to place a Community Rights state constitutional amendment on the ballot for voters.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 14, 2017
The NH Community Rights Network and residents successfully introduce a rights-based state constitutional amendment to the NH legislature with Representative Ellen Read as a sponsor.
Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryNov 13, 2017
While Grant Township, PA, residents fight to protect themselves from PGE’s frack wastewater injection well, the oil and gas industry admits it wants to bankrupt CELDF.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 13, 2017
Coos Bay Estuary on the coast of Oregon files to intervene in FERC proceedings. Coos Bay is threatened by a massive LNG export terminal and a pipeline.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsNov 11, 2017
Community Rights activists speak out against Medina County’s BOE blocking a proposed county charter citizen initiative. Residents gathered 17,000 signatures to place the measure on the November ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 10, 2017
There is a growing global movement of activists and attorneys who are forging a new kind of environmental law by proclaiming the legal “rights of nature.”
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 9, 2017
Through seizing municipal government, communities are building a bulwark of rights for human and natural communities, working to liberate our communities from capitalism.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsNov 7, 2017
Students fight for right to a livable climate in Bowling Green, OH, advancing a charter amendment measure to protect the City from the Nexus pipeline.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 7, 2017
Youngstown, OH, residents make their comeback, gathering signatures on election day for their Community Rights charter amendment protecting their water.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsOct 30, 2017
As part of the growing movement for the Rights of Nature, Coos River Estuary in Oregon recently filed to intervene in a FERC hearing on the Jordan Cove project.
Read More | Community Wires, Events, News from the GrassrootsOct 22, 2017
This is what we need to do, given the global environmental crisis we face and the legal structure that created it: dismantle existing law and build something new.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 19, 2017
Bowling Green residents declare victory! Their right to vote affirmed in Ohio Supreme Court as the first-in-the-state Right to Climate initiative goes on the November ballot.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsOct 19, 2017
An over-burdened Colorado River ecosystem files a first-in-the-nation lawsuit to have its rights recognized at a time of growing ecological crisis.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 19, 2017
The people prevail! An attempt to keep Bowling Green, OH, residents from voting on their Right to Climate ballot initiative falls flat before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryOct 18, 2017
A lawsuit to recognize the rights of the Colorado River to exist, flourish, and evolve, is the next step in the growing Rights of Nature movement.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 18, 2017
The oil and gas industry, Ohio legislators, and the Ohio Supreme Court strip Youngstown residents of their right to vote. Their response: “Onward!”
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 17, 2017
Pebble Mine is moving forward in Alaska. We need a revolution if we have any hope to protect the ecosystems we depend upon.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsOct 13, 2017
The Current interviews attorney Jason Flores-Williams on his work with Deep Green Resistance to recognize the rights of the Colorado River. DGR filed a federal lawsuit filed last month.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryOct 10, 2017
If we take a knee to protest racism in our capacity as employees, our rights under the first amendment are not protected.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsOct 6, 2017
In a 4-3 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court denies Youngstown residents the right to vote. Residents vow they are not surrendering their rights.
Read More | Press Releases & Blogs