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Newsletters
Oct 3, 2018
Denver, CO, residents advance “Right to Survive” bill of rights for homeless people, turning in petitions for the May 2019 ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsSep 26, 2018
CELDF’s Ben Price reflects on the Ecuadorian people embracing Rights of Nature in their constitution ten year ago, and the growing movement since.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StorySep 24, 2018
While Ohio Supreme Court justices ignore democratic and environmental rights, Toledo residents continue to fight for them, and for the rights of Lake Erie.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsSep 21, 2018
CELDF assisted Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly to draft Rights of Nature provisions for their Constitution. The Ecuadorian people adopted the Constitution overwhelmingly by popular vote. Now, we celebrate the 10 year anniversary, and the growing Rights of Nature movement.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryAug 16, 2018
Human activity is devastating the Great Barrier Reef. The Australia Earth Laws Alliance works with CELDF to secure rights for the Reef, protecting it from climate change, pollution, and other threats.
Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryAug 13, 2018
Preemption is used by governments to stop communities from protecting their rights, health, safety, and welfare. It’s time to change that – and we can.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsAug 6, 2018
Facing radioactive fracking waste, Columbus, OH, residents qualify a Community Bill of Rights initiative banning fracking activities from within the City. The measure protects rights to clean air, water, and soil.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryJul 10, 2018
Todd Township, PA, adopts a Community Rights law prohibiting industrial factory farming to protect their community and preserve local farming operations.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryJul 6, 2018
Northern India Court issues ruling in growing Rights of Nature movement: “Every species has an inherent right to live and are required to be protected by law.”
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryJun 29, 2018
The more property you own, the more rights you are accorded. If you’re homeless, propertyless, imprisoned, or undocumented, your rights are almost nil. That’s not what our revolutionary ancestors intended. It’s time to do something about it.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsMay 24, 2018
Environmental and social justice attorney Terry Lodge receives the 2018 Johnsrud Unsung Heroes Award. Lodge partners with CELDF to advance and protect Community Rights for communities across Ohio.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryMay 21, 2018
PGE continues to harass Grant Township, a small community in rural Pennsylvania, by attempting to force the Township to pay attorney’s fees. Grant residents are protecting their water by fighting PGE’s proposed fracking wastewater injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsMay 16, 2018
An uninformed, passive public is easy to for the 1% to lead. We must become knowledgeable – not just about what is happening, but how and why. We must take on difficult questions and challenge the status quo if we are going to create a new way of life.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsMay 9, 2018
It was a questionable election at best for Youngstown, OH, where community members are fighting for their right to clean water in a city that is making it increasingly difficult to even vote on citizen initiatives.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsApr 14, 2018
Courageous local officials in ten Florida cities are fighting punishments enacted by the state legislature under an unjust gun law. But it’s the state’s claimed power of preemption that must be challenged.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsApr 5, 2018
In the growing recognition of ecosystem rights around the world, today the Colombia Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the Amazon region in Colombia possesses rights.
Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryMar 27, 2018
CELDF, OHCRN, and Ohio communities grieve the loss of Dick McGinn, and celebrate his life and contributions. He was a passionate leader in growing Community Rights in Ohio.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsMar 19, 2018
The Mahoning County, OH, Board of Elections blocks a duly qualified Community Bill of Rights initiative from the ballot in Youngstown. CELDF assists residents to file a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsMar 16, 2018
The New Hampshire legislature takes an historic vote on the first Community Rights state constitutional amendment considered by a state legislature.
Read More | Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryMar 14, 2018
Communities can’t adopt the gun laws they believe would best protect their health, safety, and welfare. Here’s why – and what communities can do about it.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsFeb 28, 2018
Community Rights supporter Carol Van Strum receives the International Lifetime Achievement Award Presented at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, OR.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryFeb 25, 2018
CELDF’s Tish O’Dell shares discoveries of her own white privilege when fracking came into her community – and how Dr. Martin Luther King and Black Lives Matter inform her work with communities today
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsFeb 19, 2018
The people’s Community Rights state constitutional amendment moves ahead with the support of a New Hampshire legislative subcommittee.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryFeb 5, 2018
“Local control” today means seizing our local governments and enacting laws to protect our communities and the future of the planet.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsFeb 1, 2018
Plymouth, NH, voters overwhelmingly adopt a rights-based ordinance banning unsustainable energy projects and protecting their right to a sustainable energy future. The measure bans the Northern Pass project.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryJan 29, 2018
Let’s stop lying to each other and stop protesting. Let’s start truth-telling and begin building our communities based on rights. It’s time.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsJan 23, 2018
New Hampshire residents and the NHCRN advance a Community Rights state constitutional amendment to the legislative committee hearing.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryJan 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 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 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 & BlogsDec 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 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 & BlogsNov 20, 2017
A powerful exchange between a New Hampshire legislator and a New Hampshire resident on Community Rights.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsNov 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 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
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 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
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 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 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 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 & BlogsOct 2, 2017
Highland Township, PA, residents plan enforcement of their Home Rule Charter banning a frack wastewater injection well as judiciary sides with Seneca Resources Corporation.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsSep 21, 2017
The Ohio Supreme Court places insurmountable requirements on county charter initiatives. For three years, counties have attempted to protect themselves from fracking through advancing rights-based charter initiatives.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsSep 7, 2017
The Board of Elections denies Youngstown, OH, residents their inalienable right to vote on their own citizen initiatives. Residents are challenging the stripping of their rights.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsAug 22, 2017
Boards of Elections use new found authority to block citizen initiatives off the ballot in Athens and Medina Counties in Ohio. CELDF is assisting residents to fight back, taking it to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsAug 7, 2017
Youngstown, OH, residents submit petitions to place a fair elections initiative on the November ballot. The measure includes removing corporations from campaigns.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsAug 7, 2017
State and federal governments use ceiling preemption to suppress rights. It’s time for communities to use floor preemption to stop harm and expand rights.
Read More | Press Releases & Blogs