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Sep 3, 2020

Financial Reprisal for Enacting Lake Erie Bill of Rights? Corporate Law Firm Charging Toledoans $207,500

Financial Reprisal for Enacting Lake Erie Bill of Rights? Corporate Law Firm Charging Toledoans $207,500

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 Releases

Aug 27, 2020

COMING SOON: World Premiere of ‘Invisible Hand’

COMING SOON: World Premiere of ‘Invisible Hand’

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 Grassroots

Aug 26, 2020

New Hampshire Supreme Court Gives Group Chance to Defend Right to a Healthy Climate Law from Corporate Lawsuit

New Hampshire Supreme Court Gives Group Chance to Defend Right to a Healthy Climate Law from Corporate Lawsuit

While local electeds refused to defend Nottingham’s Healthy Climate Law, the New Hampshire Supreme Court heard the people’s voice. Now residents are able to defend their rights and this historic law while the corporation cries discrimination.

Read More | Press Releases, Press Releases & Blogs

Aug 18, 2020

Rights of Nature with United Church of Christ Pastor

Rights of Nature with United Church of Christ Pastor

The UCC hosts CELDFs Tish O’Dell for a Rights of Nature presentation. Watch the full webinar here!

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Aug 12, 2020

Press Release: Toledo Residents Experiment With Civilian Rights of Nature Enforcement

Press Release: Toledo Residents Experiment With Civilian Rights of Nature Enforcement

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 & Blogs

Aug 12, 2020

Defending the Rights of Lake Erie

Defending the Rights of Lake Erie

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 Wires

Jul 8, 2020

Staying Home with Josh Fox: Preemption and Property Rights

Staying Home with Josh Fox: Preemption and Property Rights

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 Nature

Jul 7, 2020

Common Dreams: Corporations Are Suing Cities Across the USA

Common Dreams: Corporations Are Suing Cities Across the USA

A new Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund report details a standard operating procedure of how corporate interests, and the politicians who serve them, retain power.

Read More | Corporate 'Rights', Resource Links

Jun 29, 2020

Thom Hartmann Program: State Law Benefits Corporations Against You – You Lose

Thom Hartmann Program: State Law Benefits Corporations Against You – You Lose

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 Grassroots

Jun 23, 2020

A Guide to Protesting and How to Support the Black Lives Matter Movement

A Guide to Protesting and How to Support the Black Lives Matter Movement

A quick guide on how to participate in ongoing BLM protests and support the Movement in an effective way.

Read More | Resource Links

Jun 17, 2020

Lawsuit: Columbus, OH Must Take Action to Preserve Direct Democracy During the Pandemic

Lawsuit: Columbus, OH Must Take Action to Preserve Direct Democracy During the Pandemic

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 Releases

Jun 11, 2020

Webinar: Expanding Rights-Based Organizing During a Crisis

Webinar: Expanding Rights-Based Organizing During a Crisis

A live Q&A with CELDF organizers on Expanding Rights-Based Organizing During a Crisis.

Read More | Events

Jun 11, 2020

Corporate Actors Challenged in Lincoln County, OR: Ecosystem, Petitioners Defend Ordinance

Corporate Actors Challenged in Lincoln County, OR: Ecosystem, Petitioners Defend Ordinance

Press Release: Petitioners in Lincoln County, OR filed a detailed appeal to a court decision that overturned a local law banning aerially sprayed pesticides as a violation of people’s right to clean air, water, and soil and natural ecosystems’ rights. The Siletz River ecosystem was denied intervention in the case.

Read More | News, Press Releases

Jun 9, 2020

New Hampshire Supreme Court: Allow People to Defend Against Corporate Lawsuits

New Hampshire Supreme Court: Allow People to Defend Against Corporate Lawsuits

Nottingham, New Hampshire residents appeal Supreme Court to defend their Freedom from Chemical Trespass Ordinance. Adopted in 2019, this ordinance secures the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human societies, bans all corporate activities that infringe that right, and grants residents the right to defend the law in court.

Read More | Community Wires, News, Press Releases

Jun 9, 2020

CELDF REPORT: Corporations Are Suing Cities Across the USA

CELDF REPORT: Corporations Are Suing Cities Across the USA

A new Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund report details a standard operating procedure of how corporate interests, and the politicians who serve them, retain power.

Read More | Blogs, News, Publications, Resources

Jun 2, 2020

Stand With George Floyd: Life > Property

Stand With George Floyd: Life > Property

When violent police forces rooted in white supremacy defend property rather than human beings, then property destruction becomes a collective act of self-defense. CELDF stands in solidarity with protesters outraged by racial injustice and violence. #BlackLivesMatter

Read More | Blogs, Defunding Violence, News

Jun 1, 2020

Press Release: Columbus Protecting Democracy During a Pandemic

Press Release: Columbus Protecting Democracy During a Pandemic

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 Releases

May 21, 2020

A Closer Look: Exploring the Rights of Nature on June 3

A Closer Look: Exploring the Rights of Nature on June 3

A Live Q&A Session with CELDF organizers taking a Closer Look at the Rights of Nature.

Read More | Events

Apr 22, 2020

Common Dreams: Abolish Earth Day

Common Dreams: Abolish Earth Day

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 Grassroots

Apr 20, 2020

50 Years of Earth Day – What Are We Celebrating?

50 Years of Earth Day – What Are We Celebrating?

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 Grassroots

Apr 13, 2020

Podcast Interview: Grant Township Update on Political Misfits

Podcast Interview: Grant Township Update on Political Misfits

Pennsylvania organizer, Chad Nicholson, discusses the Rights of Nature victory in Grant Township despite the ongoing rollback of environmental protections across the country.

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Resource Links

Apr 6, 2020

People Power in a Time of Pandemic

People Power in a Time of Pandemic

In this interview, Kai speaks on the current state of community rights, gives an explanation of the events taking place in Grant Township, and talks about how we must take this time during Covid-19 to progress forward in the movement.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Apr 2, 2020

Rolling Stone: Nature Scores a Big Win Against Fracking in a Small Pennsylvania Town

Rolling Stone: Nature Scores a Big Win Against Fracking in a Small Pennsylvania Town

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoked a permit for a toxic frack waste injection well in Grant Township. The DEP cited the Township’s Home Rule Charter, which includes a “Community Bill of Rights,” in their decision. Through the Charter that residents adopted in 2015, they banned injections wells as a violation of the rights of the community and the ecosystems that sustain them. CELDF assisted in drafting and defending the law.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Resource Links, Success Story

Mar 30, 2020

Corporate America is on Offense, Local Communities Can Be Too

Corporate America is on Offense, Local Communities Can Be Too

Government allies and corporate interests are treating the global pandemic as a business opportunity. Communities enduring this crisis are taking bold and necessary actions to exercise their powers of self-governance where governments are not functioning in the way people want or need.

Read More | News, News from the Grassroots

Mar 25, 2020

Breaking: Rights of Nature Law Forces Pennsylvania to Revoke Industry Permit

Breaking: Rights of Nature Law Forces Pennsylvania to Revoke Industry Permit

PRESS RELEASE: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection enforces local Rights of Nature law. Allows Grant Township to protect vital waterways in revoking permit for dangerous frack waste injection well.

Read More | News, Press Releases

Mar 21, 2020

Dear Mike DeWine: A Letter on Ohioan’s Constitutional Rights and Public Health

Dear Mike DeWine: A Letter on Ohioan’s Constitutional Rights and Public Health

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 Links

Mar 17, 2020

Community Stories: Claiming the Law

Community Stories: Claiming the Law

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, News

Mar 13, 2020

BREAKING: Repressive Tactics Used to Attack Rights of Nature

BREAKING: Repressive Tactics Used to Attack Rights of Nature

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 Releases

Mar 6, 2020

The Indiana Gazette: Court sides with Grant Township on injection well

The Indiana Gazette: Court sides with Grant Township on injection well

As the Pennsylvania DEP attempts to block Grant Township’s defense of their ban on fracking injection wells, the court rules that the case can move forward. Grant argues they have the right to local governing authority to protect against corporate harm.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success Story

Mar 4, 2020

Press Release: Grant Township Injection Well Ban Stands, Court Denies ‘Collateral Attack’ from DEP

Press Release: Grant Township Injection Well Ban Stands, Court Denies ‘Collateral Attack’ from DEP

A decision fro a judge in Grant Township argues that local governing authority is necessary to protect the community’s constitutional rights in the face of harmful state oil and gas policies.

Read More | News, Press Releases

Feb 28, 2020

Press Release: Judge Refuses to Acknowledge Lake Erie’s Rights

Press Release: Judge Refuses to Acknowledge Lake Erie’s Rights

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 Releases

Feb 26, 2020

Breaking the Spell of Misguided Obedience

Breaking the Spell of Misguided Obedience

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, News

Feb 6, 2020

PRESS RELEASE: LAKE ERIE BILL OF RIGHTS AND RIGHTS OF NATURE ARGUED IN US FEDERAL COURT

PRESS RELEASE: LAKE ERIE BILL OF RIGHTS AND RIGHTS OF NATURE ARGUED IN US FEDERAL COURT

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 Releases

Feb 6, 2020

Rights of Nature: Ohio Organizer Tish O’Dell on Top of Mind with Julie Rose

Rights of Nature: Ohio Organizer Tish O’Dell on Top of Mind with Julie Rose

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 Nature

Feb 5, 2020

VIDEO: ‘The Transformation from Reformist to Revolutionary’

VIDEO: ‘The Transformation from Reformist to Revolutionary’

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, Resources

Jan 27, 2020

Press Release: Lake Erie’s Day in Court

Press Release: Lake Erie’s Day in Court

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 & Blogs

Jan 25, 2020

The Blade: More at stake than water with Lake Erie Bill of Rights court decision

The Blade: More at stake than water with Lake Erie Bill of Rights court decision

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 Grassroots

Jan 21, 2020

Lake Erie Bill of Rights Heads to Federal Court

Lake Erie Bill of Rights Heads to Federal Court

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 Grassroots

Jan 20, 2020

Wink News: Push by Florida lawmakers to block bill giving ‘legal rights’ to nature

Wink News: Push by Florida lawmakers to block bill giving ‘legal rights’ to nature

Florida state representatives endeavor to stop Rights of Nature as growing numbers of communities across the state advance local laws recognizing such rights.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 19, 2020

NBC 24News: Toledoans For Safe Water screen “Invisible Hand” ahead of the state’s lawsuit against city

NBC 24News: Toledoans For Safe Water screen “Invisible Hand” ahead of the state’s lawsuit against city

Toledoans grow support for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights as their day in court approaches.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 10, 2019

Guest Blog: A Conversation with The Guardian

Guest Blog: A Conversation with The Guardian

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 & Blogs

Dec 5, 2019

Blog: A Fundamentally Humanizing Agenda

Blog: A Fundamentally Humanizing Agenda

The current administration wants a crackdown on people experiencing homelessness. It’s time, instead, for a humanizing agenda, such as that advanced by Denver residents this year.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 11, 2019

Media Statement: Settlement Announced with Oil and Gas Industry Seeking Monetary Award: Ban Against Injection Wells Continues

Media Statement: Settlement Announced with Oil and Gas Industry Seeking Monetary Award: Ban Against Injection Wells Continues

Following settlement of one of the lawsuits against Grant Township, PA, for daring to protect its water from a frack wastewater injection well, the township continues to stand up to the oil and gas industry.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 4, 2019

Press Release: Election 2019: Corporations Are Determining What Gets Voted On

Press Release: Election 2019: Corporations Are Determining What Gets Voted On

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 & Blogs

Oct 23, 2019

High Country News: In Oregon, the fight for local control upends Western norms

High Country News: In Oregon, the fight for local control upends Western norms

Lincoln County residents continue their fight to protect themselves and ecosystems from aerial sprayed pesticides, and spark not only hope, but tangible strategies for advancing rights.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots