Important Updates
A new system of law based on respect for Nature and the…
Issues, News, Resources, Rights of Nature
Human and ecosystem viability come when we figure out how to orient…
News, Rights of Nature
Protecting Water and Life: Frontline Stories from Ohioans fighting corporate and state…
Publications
Dec 15, 2021
What is the force that propels a woman forward in taking a courageous stand for water and the environment water creates?
Here is what Tish O’Dell told WATERTODAY Ohio.
Nov 5, 2021
How do we unite to create a more just and sustainable vision for the future. What are the possible next steps?
Read More | Events, UncategorizedNov 2, 2021
Would recognizing Rights of Nature affect you, the community and possibly the planet? Instead of looking at nature as mere property and as resources, what if we shifted the lens and the law to recognizing nature as living and therefore entitled to rights to life, to flourish and thrive?
Read More | Events, Rights of NatureOct 7, 2021
Members of OHCRN have called on Ohio’s Attorney General, Dave Yost, to open an investigation into the violation of Ohio law and the criminal actions of state officials and industry who were and are well aware that this brine is highly radioactive, yet still approve and allow it to be spread in Ohio communities.
Read More | Chemical Trespass, News from the GrassrootsApr 27, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tish O’DellCommunity Environmental Legal Defense FundCommunity OrganizerCELDF.orgtish@celdf.org440-552-6774 Oral arguments presented in civil rights appeal in the critical case for direct democracy arising from suppression of Rights of Nature and local democracy petitioning. Cincinnati, OH: Oral arguments took place last week in Beiersdorfer v. LaRose, et al. (No. 20-3557), a case that begs fundamental… Read more »
Read More | News, Press ReleasesApr 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 ReleasesApr 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, Issues, News, News from the GrassrootsDec 11, 2020
Over the past five years, organizers in seven Ohio communities (three cities, four counties) have qualified ballot measures to recognize enforceable rights of ecosystems and human rights to water. All take the historic and bold step of elevating these basic rights above the legal privileges currently enjoyed by private corporations in the United States.
Read More | Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Corporate Agriculture, Extraction & Pollution, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of NatureOct 21, 2020
Lisa Burroughs for Ashtabula County Water Watch interviews CELDF’s Tish O’Dell on the Rights of Nature Movement in an October 2020 edition of North Coast Voice Magazine.
Read More | Community Rights, Community Wires, Issues, News from the Grassroots, Rights of NatureOct 9, 2020
Plaintiffs from seven Ohio counties, representing Rights of Nature and corporate control ballot measures, sued the Ohio Secretary of State and Boards of Election officials in trial court for repeatedly keeping binding citizen-proposed laws and charters off the ballot. Several national organizations have filed amicus briefs in support of the appeal.
Read More | Press Releases, Press Releases & BlogsOct 6, 2020
Ohioans are taking a stand against evasive and oppressive tactics used by the State to suppress local ballot measures and stifle democracy. Plaintiffs from seven counties have filed an appeal to the Sixth Circuit in a federal civil rights case against the State of Ohio.
Read More | Press Releases, Press Releases & BlogsSep 4, 2020
Some leaders within the growing Rights of Nature movement in the United States have offered perspective and the Democratic Party’s actions
Read More | News, Press Releases & BlogsSep 3, 2020
The international corporate law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP is seeking $207,500 in attorney fees from the City of Toledo for a charter amendment approved by voters.
Read More | News, Press ReleasesAug 27, 2020
From Executive Producer Mark Ruffalo comes the world’s first documentary film on the Rights of Nature Movement. Attend the virtual world premiere followed by a panel discussion around the Rights of Nature Movement.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 18, 2020
The UCC hosts CELDFs Tish O’Dell for a Rights of Nature presentation. Watch the full webinar here!
Read More | News from the GrassrootsAug 12, 2020
Toledo, Ohio residents give oral arguments in Lake Erie Bill of Rights pro se lawsuit to advances one avenue for participatory Rights of Nature enforcement.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsAug 12, 2020
Read the pro se argument defending the Lake Erie Bill of Rights presented by Toledo resident, Mike Ferner, on behalf of Lake Erie and the Toledoans who passed the law.
Read More | Community WiresJul 8, 2020
Ben Price discusses Rights of Nature and how the concepts of preemption, claimed corporate rights, and property rights challenge local democracy and ecosystem rights.
Read More | Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Rights of NatureJun 29, 2020
Chad Nicholson joins Thom Hartmann to discuss how the 1% are effectively, suing the 99% for their own benefit, citing the findings of our June 2020 Report.
Read More | Corporate 'Rights', News from the GrassrootsJun 17, 2020
Press Release: Petitioners in Columbus file a lawsuit against the state of Ohio for unconstitutional limits on signature gathering during the COVID-19 pandemic in Columbus. The Columbus city charter imposes a one year time limit on signature gathering.
Read More | News, Press ReleasesJun 1, 2020
Communities across the country are watching as their rights are violated in the name of Covid. Now more than ever we see people rising up to demand democracy.
Read More | News, Press ReleasesApr 22, 2020
For 50 years, environmentalists have celebrated the illusion that the law is on their side. Earth Day’s laws have systematically failed to guard against mass species die-offs, the climate crisis, deadly air pollution, the corporatization of freshwater, and the largest loss of biodiversity in human history.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 20, 2020
This year CELDF will be hosting an online Q&A with organizers who have been engaging communities across the country in paradigm-shifting work for decades.
Read More | Community Wires, Events, News from the GrassrootsMar 21, 2020
Ohio Organizer Tish O’Dell responds to Gov. Mike DeWine’s concerns for public health and constitutional rights during the COVID-19 crisis. Let’s hope he upholds his own words when it’s time to recover and rebuild.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Resource LinksMar 17, 2020
Bryan Twitchell shares a guest blog about the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s ongoing resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia, Canada.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, NewsMar 13, 2020
Press Release: Corporate plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit against LEBOR show total disregard for global COVID-19 pandemic as they demand $293,750 from the City of Toledo for defending the Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
Read More | News, Press ReleasesFeb 28, 2020
In Toledo, OH, a federal judge joined a long list of enablers complicit in the destruction of the natural world by invalidating the democratically enacted Lake Erie Bill of Rights charter amendment.
Read More | Community Wires, News, Press ReleasesFeb 26, 2020
Toledo organizer Markie Miller drafted this letter to Lake Erie the night before the federal hearing. In honor of this moment in history, we share her letter here.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, NewsFeb 6, 2020
A post-court update of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights. Get an in-depth look at the arguments made in federal court as the Corporate State defends its constitutional right to pollute. The City of Toledo is triumphant in defending Rights of Nature.
Read More | News, Press ReleasesFeb 6, 2020
If corporations have individual rights under US law – like freedom of speech – why not a grant a lake or forest or river the same status? Ohio organizer Tish O’Dell talks about Toledo’s groundbreaking law – the Lake Erie Bill of Rights – and the Rights of Nature Movement!
Read More | Community Rights, Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Resource Links, Rights of NatureFeb 5, 2020
This 6 minute short explains how, across numerous social issues—from housing, worker rights, environmental protection to gentrification—“the people in the community lack the legal authority to determine their own future, a basic tenet of democracy.”
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Multimedia, News from the Grassroots, Resource Links, ResourcesFeb 3, 2020
Read the first-hand accounts from attendees at the historic Lake Erie Bill of Rights hearing that took place in Toledo, Ohio last week.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases, Press Releases & BlogsJan 27, 2020
Organizations, activists, government officials, and hundreds of others from around the world support the Lake Erie Bill of Rights as oral arguments in federal court are held tomorrow.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsJan 25, 2020
Can a corporation 40 miles from Toledo interfere with the rights of Toledoans to amend their charter and protect Lake Erie?
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 21, 2020
Oral arguments in the federal case brought by a corporation to overturn the Lake Erie Bill of Rights are coming up. The world stands with Toledoans.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 19, 2020
The Lake Erie Bill of Rights is part of a growing movement, and people are joining. What will the courts do?
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 19, 2020
Toledoans grow support for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights as their day in court approaches.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 10, 2019
LEBOR activists exchanged views with The Guardian on Rights of Nature and human rights. Here, they make clear the need to recognize that it is not nature’s rights vs human rights, but those combined against corporate claimed rights.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsNov 4, 2019
Efforts are growing to not only determine how people vote, but what gets voted on. Your ballot measures are not yours to democratically determine.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsOct 14, 2019
An Ohio resident makes clear that it is state government itself that is driving forward polluting Lake Erie. The state is even joining a lawsuit to overturn the Lake Erie Bill of Rights while permitting four factory farms.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 1, 2019
This Toledoan calls out Ohio government officials: actions speak louder than words, and promises to protect Lake Erie ring hollow when the state approves factory farm permits.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 30, 2019
Williams County, Ohio, residents submit request to join a multi-plaintiff federal civil rights lawsuit against state of Ohio as they continue to be blocked from the ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsSep 29, 2019
The Yurok Tribe recognizes the rights of the Klamath River this summer as part of the growing Rights of Nature movement.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StorySep 14, 2019
The unsurprising truth behind legislation adopted by the Ohio Assembly in an effort to undermine the Rights of Nature movement.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 11, 2019
Corporate control runs deep in the Ohio legislature as the big business writes language to stop Rights of Nature enforcement.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 10, 2019
An analysis of Rights of Nature laws as a path forward to protecting ecosystems in the face of continuing environmental harms.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots
