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Feb 10, 2016

Citizen.com: Let the People Vote

Citizen.com: Let the People Vote

Article 40, Right of Local Community Self-Government, would amend the New Hampshire Constitution to empower people and their local governments to enact local laws that protect and expand the rights of real people, communities and nature at the municipal level.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 13, 2016

Gazette: Broadview Hts.’ citizens group MADION continues its gas-oil well fight in court

Gazette: Broadview Hts.’ citizens group MADION continues its gas-oil well fight in court

Broadview Heights, OH, residents’ CELDF attorney presents oral arguments on the people’s inalienable right to protect their communities from fracking over the corporate claimed “right” to frack.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 13, 2016

Community Rights Paper #11: Slaves in all but Name

Community Rights Paper #11: Slaves in all but Name

Communities across the U.S. are stripped of their right to local self-government, and the right to protect themselves from corporate harms and the corporate state. Read how we are “Slaves in all but Name” in Community Rights Paper 11 – and what is possible with the Community Rights Movement.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 11, 2016

The Athens News: Appeals court in fracking case should stand up for basic rights

The Athens News: Appeals court in fracking case should stand up for basic rights

A class action lawsuit filed by CELDF on behalf of Broadview Heights residents to uphold their inalienable right to local self-government – including their right to protect clean air and pure water – is heard last week by a Court of Appeals in Ohio.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 11, 2016

The Ledger Transcript: Support Community Rights in NH

The Ledger Transcript: Support Community Rights in NH

The NHCRN and CELDF partner with New Hampshire communities to advance community rights – today manifesting in a state consitutional amendment that has bi-partisan support in the legislature.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 7, 2016

National Community Rights Network endorses proposed New Hampshire state constitutional amendment

National Community Rights Network endorses proposed New Hampshire state constitutional amendment

The National Community Rights Network supports New Hampshire’s efforts to secure the right to local, community self-government, protecting community rights from state preemption and corporate control.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 3, 2016

The Keene Sentinel: Elected officials seeking to slow pipeline proposal with state legislation

The Keene Sentinel: Elected officials seeking to slow pipeline proposal with state legislation

As a pipeline project cutting through New Hampshire threatens a number of communities, several pieces of legislation are being proposed at the state level – including the New Hampshire Community Rights Network’s Community Rights state constitutional amendment. If adopted, the measure would secure the right of Granite Staters to protect their communities from harmful corporate projects by banning them.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 2, 2016

The World: Your View – Support your right to be the decision maker

The World: Your View – Support your right to be the decision maker

Rather than being the cornerstone of democracy, our U.S. Constitution is the cornerstone of oligarchy – as evidenced by corporate projects forced into communities, such as the proposed Jordan Cove LNG export terminal in Coos County, OR.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 30, 2015

Community Rights Paper #10: Paradise Lost

Community Rights Paper #10: Paradise Lost

What does a property and commerce driven U.S. Constitution mean for native Hawai’ians? Through a relentless and inexorable colonization process over many decades, including superimposing the U.S. Constitution on the people of the islands, community decision making was effectively swept away and put into the hands of corporations and the U.S. government.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 29, 2015

Community Rights Papers #9: Drowning the Clean Water Act in the Constitution’s Bathtub

Community Rights Papers #9: Drowning the Clean Water Act in the Constitution’s Bathtub

In the U.S., laws securing civil rights, worker rights, and environmental protections have been pinned not on Congress’s authority to protect people or nature, but on its authority to regulate commerce. The U.S. Constitution was written to protect property and commerce, rather than human and nature’s rights. The Community Rights Movement is working to change that.

Read More | Community Wires

Dec 19, 2015

The Leap: Can Local Law Enforcement Be Democratized By A People’s Movement?

The Leap: Can Local Law Enforcement Be Democratized By A People’s Movement?

As communities move beyond slowing down unwanted fossil fuel projects such as pipelines, and begin using local community self-governance to stop them, they are bumping into their own local agencies acting against them. Medina County, OH, and other communities across the country turn to Community Rights to protect themselves and create the communities they envision.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 14, 2015

PA Township News: Pre-emptive State Laws and Corporate ‘Rights’ Are Fraught with PERIL for Municipalities

PA Township News: Pre-emptive State Laws and Corporate ‘Rights’ Are Fraught with PERIL for Municipalities

CELDF responds to inaccuracies presented by the general counselor to the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association regarding Community Bills of Rights and our organization.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 11, 2015

New Hampshire Community Rights Amendment Moves Closer to Committee Public Hearing

New Hampshire Community Rights Amendment Moves Closer to Committee Public Hearing

New Hampshire’s Community Rights state constitutional amendment securing the right to local, community self-government for all Granite Staters, moves forward for the 2016 Legislative Session.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 11, 2015

Community Rights Papers #8: A Touch of Class

Community Rights Papers #8: A Touch of Class

While the state and the oil and gas industry work together to force fracking activities into communities, those same communities are working to reclaim their right to local, community self-government, just as the American Revolutionaries did against the British state in the 1700s.

Read More | Community Wires

Dec 8, 2015

New Hampshire Community Rights Justified Heritage

New Hampshire Community Rights Justified Heritage

New Hampshire Community Rights Network Coordinator Michelle Sanborn asserts the state’s Community Rights Amendment – co-sponsored by several state legislators – has its roots in American revolutionary history, and expands fundamental rights for people, communities, and nature.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 5, 2015

City Council Should Focus on Abolishing, Not Rerouting, NEXUS Pipeline

City Council Should Focus on Abolishing, Not Rerouting, NEXUS Pipeline

The Oberlin Review urges Oberlin, OH’s City Council to stop working to reroute the NEXUS pipeline, and stand behind its Community Bill of Rights banning new pipeline construction within the city: unsustainable energy projects should be stopped, not moved.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 4, 2015

Guest Opinion: Pushing for community rights

Guest Opinion: Pushing for community rights

Mary Russell of Carbondale, CO, advocates for community rights as a tool for the people to make self-governing decisions in their communities, and urges support in gathering signatures for the Colorado Community Rights Network’s rights-based ballot measure.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 2, 2015

Two Landslide Wins in PA

Two Landslide Wins in PA

In November, both Grant Township and West Chester Borough, PA, residents adopt community rights measures to assert their authority for self-determination and to protect themselves from fracking activities.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Dec 2, 2015

CELDF Celebrates 20 Years!

CELDF Celebrates 20 Years!

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund turns 20 years old! What began as a mission to help communities fight permits has evolved into a Community Rights Movement for people and nature.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Nov 30, 2015

Keene Sentinel: Rindge state rep wants to amend NH constitution

Keene Sentinel: Rindge state rep wants to amend NH constitution

New Hampshire state representative Susan Emerson sponsors the NH Community Rights Network’s community rights state constitutional amendment, aimed to protect rights to democratic, local self-governing authority.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 29, 2015

Dave Solomon’s Power Plays: NH joins energy community rights network

Dave Solomon’s Power Plays: NH joins energy community rights network

The New Hampshire Community Rights Network, supported by growing numbers of Towns across the state, receives legislative endorsement for a state constitutional amendment securing the people’s right to local self-government.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 17, 2015

The BG News: Environmental lawyer calls for revolt against corporations

The BG News: Environmental lawyer calls for revolt against corporations

Rather than protecting people’s rights to local self-government and clean air and water, our legal and governing structures are designed to protect corporations as they cause harms to our communities. What can we do? Revolt.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 13, 2015

Students, Communities Protest Proposed Pipeline

Students, Communities Protest Proposed Pipeline

As the NEXUS pipeline threatens residents of Oberlin, OH, community groups join together, using community rights to assert their local self-governing authority to stop construction.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 11, 2015

Oil & Gas Industry vs. Community Rights

Oil & Gas Industry vs. Community Rights

Coloradan Merrily Mazza distinguishes between frack ban efforts that neglect to address people’s community right to local self-government, and those that place that right as central to protecting communities from fracking and other harms.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 10, 2015

Spokane,WA 2013 Community Bill of Rights goes to state Supreme Court

Spokane,WA 2013 Community Bill of Rights goes to state Supreme Court

After City and corporate interests kept Spokane residents’ 2013 Community Bill of Rights off the ballot, CELDF argues before the Washington Supreme Court to recognize the right of the people to initiative.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 9, 2015

Eagle Times: Legislators take a stand for NH community rights

Eagle Times: Legislators take a stand for NH community rights

Representatives in the New Hampshire state legislature endorse a statewide Community Rights state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the rights of the people to democratic local self-government supersede corporate claimed “rights.”

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 7, 2015

The Medina-Gazette: NEXUS gas compressor sparks concerns

The Medina-Gazette: NEXUS gas compressor sparks concerns

Medina County, OH, residents attend a standing-room-only meeting about a proposed NEXUS pipeline that would cut through their communities. Residents declare they will continue to pursue a rights-based county charter that would include a ban on pipelines.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 4, 2015

Pittsburgh Business Times: This town hates frack waste so much it refuted a federal judge’s ruling and adopted a new charter to ban it

Pittsburgh Business Times: This town hates frack waste so much it refuted a federal judge’s ruling and adopted a new charter to ban it

Grant Township, PA, residents refuse to accept a federal judge’s ruling in favor of a fracking corporation that wants to site an injection well. Instead, they adopted their own community rights home rule charter, which includes a frack waste ban.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 4, 2015

Press Release: Youngstown Residents Just Shy of Codifying Community Rights

Press Release: Youngstown Residents Just Shy of Codifying Community Rights

Youngstown, OH, community rights supporters came within 345 votes of adopting their rights-based charter amendment banning fracking, and are ready to press forward.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 4, 2015

Press Release: West Chester, PA, Voters Adopt Community Rights Charter Amendment Banning Fracking Wastewater, Pipelines, and Drilling

Press Release: West Chester, PA, Voters Adopt Community Rights Charter Amendment Banning Fracking Wastewater, Pipelines, and Drilling

The people of West Chester, PA, vote overwhelmingly to assert their community rights and ban fracking activities from their borough. They join dozens of other communities across the state – and the country – who are standing up for their rights.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Nov 4, 2015

Common Dreams: No Longer Willing to be Bullied and Fracked, How One Pennsylvania Town Fought Back

Common Dreams: No Longer Willing to be Bullied and Fracked, How One Pennsylvania Town Fought Back

Grant Township is the first community in the U.S. to draft and adopt their municipal charter based entirely on community rights. In so doing, they reinstated a fracking ban that had been overturned by a federal judge.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 3, 2015

Press Release: Despite Court Ruling, Grant Township Bans Fracking Injection Wells Again, Through Municipal Charter

Press Release: Despite Court Ruling, Grant Township Bans Fracking Injection Wells Again, Through Municipal Charter

The people of Grant Township, PA, adopt the first rights-based charter in the country banning frack wastewater injection wells, two weeks after a federal judge overturned portions of a Community Bill of Rights ordinance banning the wells.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Nov 3, 2015

The Vindicator: Community Bill of Rights supporters gather at lounge

The Vindicator: Community Bill of Rights supporters gather at lounge

Youngstown, OH, residents supporting a Community Bill of Rights charter amendment banning fracking, recognize that regardless of election results, their advancing of rights is building towards a movement.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 2, 2015

The World: Power in the hands of the people

The World: Power in the hands of the people

Coos County, OR, resident urges a rejection of projects with short term benefit and long term environmental and economic harm. Instead, the Coos County Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance empowers the people of Coos County to create a sustainable future through codifying their community rights.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 31, 2015

The Indiana Gazette: Grant Township voters to decide on home rule charter

The Indiana Gazette: Grant Township voters to decide on home rule charter

Grant Township, PA, residents will vote this week on becoming a home rule township through a rights-based charter. The charter establishes the residents’ rights to clean air, water, and local self-government, and bans frack wastewater injection wells.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 30, 2015

Common Dreams: Preempting Democracy: What’s Not Being Voted on This November Is Sinister

Common Dreams: Preempting Democracy: What’s Not Being Voted on This November Is Sinister

State preemptive action to quash local initiatives that are advancing environmental and worker rights are multiplying – and may be the catalyst for rights-based efforts to join together to confront these preemptive attacks on the right to local self-government.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 27, 2015

East Boulder County United: CELDF Building New Structure of Law

East Boulder County United: CELDF Building New Structure of Law

In our culture, sustainability is illegal. CELDF is working with communities across the country to change that.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Oct 26, 2015

In These Times: A Bill of Rights That Puts Workers Above Corporations

In These Times: A Bill of Rights That Puts Workers Above Corporations

With union and labor backing, as well as endorsements from local groups and nationally renowned Noam Chomsky, Spokane, WA’s, Worker Bill of Rights charter amendment will be voted on by residents next week. The bill of rights establishes a family wage, equal pay for equal work, and protection from unjust firings.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 26, 2015

KXLY.com: What Prop 1 means for Spokane residents, businesses

KXLY.com: What Prop 1 means for Spokane residents, businesses

Residents supporting the Worker Bill of Rights in Spokane, WA, call out fear tactics used to dissuade voters, and press forward with their efforts to raise minimum wages, assure equitable pay standards, and protect against unfair firings.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 25, 2015

The Post: Op-Ed: Ohio University professor hopes people will attend environmental speaker in November

The Post: Op-Ed: Ohio University professor hopes people will attend environmental speaker in November

The rate of climate change demands urgent action. Athens, OH, resident and professor urges community members attend a November 13th event: CELDF’s Thomas Linzey speaking on community civil disobedience to protect our health, safety, and welfare.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 21, 2015

The Southern Illinoisan: Group plans to keep pushing community bill of rights

The Southern Illinoisan: Group plans to keep pushing community bill of rights

Jackson County, IL, residents doggedly pursue a Community Bill of Rights ordinance banning fracking and protecting their rights to clean air, water, and local self-government, as their own local government attempts to avoid advancing the rights-based ordinance.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 20, 2015

DeSmog Blog: Communities Pushing For Legal Rights To Regain Power Over Fracking Companies

DeSmog Blog: Communities Pushing For Legal Rights To Regain Power Over Fracking Companies

As the fracking industry pushes into communities against the will of the people, growing numbers of communities across the U.S. are using community rights in their grassroots organizing to challenge our existing structure of law and bring democracy back to the people.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 18, 2015

Sentinel Source: Citizens can’t rely on state laws for protection

Sentinel Source: Citizens can’t rely on state laws for protection

New Hampshire resident and attorney Lorraine Hansen decries the state and federal regulatory system as a means to protect people and the environment from harmful projects. What to do? Assert your rights and support the New Hampshire Community Rights Network’s proposed state constitutional amendment.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Oct 18, 2015

TruthDig: Death by Fracking

TruthDig: Death by Fracking

Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges speaks to fracking as one of myriad harms destroying communities and ecosystems; the uselessness of our environmental laws; the incestuous relationship between government and industries; and the necessary resistance that must emerge from the only places it can: locally, in the places where we live.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Oct 17, 2015

Eye on Ohio: Ohio Supreme Court rules against anti-fracking ballot measures

Eye on Ohio: Ohio Supreme Court rules against anti-fracking ballot measures

Reporter Simon Davis-Cohen provides in-depth reporting on state and industry efforts to keep fracking and pipeline initiatives off the ballot in Ohio – including the state’s use of oil and gas industry law firms.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 16, 2015

State Impact: Federal court rejects township’s waste water disposal ban

State Impact: Federal court rejects township’s waste water disposal ban

While a federal judge finds in favor of the oil and gas industry to force frack wastewater into Grant Township, PA, the decision also reveals to growing numbers of people the unjust structure of law and governance ruling over communities. Grant residents are considering an appeal.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 16, 2015

Huffington Post: Epic Change — Part 1

Huffington Post: Epic Change — Part 1

Kenny Ausubel of Bioneers sees a colossal awakening happening as climate change forces human behavioral shifts. Under our current structure of law, however, sustainability is illegal. CELDF is helping communities challenge and change that structure through community rights and the state and National Community Rights Networks.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Oct 15, 2015

NCRN Press Release: National Community Rights Network Endorses the Youngstown Community Bill of Rights Charter Amendment

NCRN Press Release: National Community Rights Network Endorses the Youngstown Community Bill of Rights Charter Amendment

NCRN endorses Youngstown, OH’s Community Bill of Rights Charter Amendment. The initiative advances the rights of residents and prohibits fracking activities that would violate community rights to clean water, air, the peaceful enjoyment of their homes, and their right to be free from chemical trespass.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots