News From the Community Rights Movement - Page 21 of 31

Mar 12, 2016

Press Release: Barnstead, NH, Adopts First-in-the-Nation Law Protects Against Religious Persecution, Including Religious I.D. Requirements

Barnstead, NH, residents make history as the first community to adopt a Community Bill of Rights establishing the right to be free from religious identification requirements.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Mar 11, 2016

Press Release: Colorado Supreme Court Rules Local Self-Government State Constitutional Amendment Can Advance to Next Stage Toward Ballot

The Colorado Supreme Court clears the way for residents to advance their Community Rights state constitutional amendment initiative to the November ballot. Oil and gas industry representatives had attempted to keep the measure from being voted on by the people.

Mar 11, 2016

Geddry.com: Bucking the establishment anti-LNG crowd

Making clear the distinction between ordinances banning harms and Community Bills of Rights laws banning harmful activities as a violation of rights, Coos County, OR, blogger and Community Rights proponent Mary Geddry urges support for rights-based strategies.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 10, 2016

The Athens News: County group plans to bring charter proposal back in November

Athens County, OH, residents advance a Community Rights County Charter banning frack wastewater injection wells for the November ballot.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 10, 2016

Fosters.com: Barrington narrowly approves ordinance to protect waterways

Barrington, NH, residents assert their right to local self-government in order to protect clean air, water, and soil, and to make the decisions about what extraction activities can occur in their Town.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 9, 2016

Press Release: “Community Rights” State Constitutional Amendment Supporters Set Sights on 2017

Community Rights supporters in New Hampshire look to 2017 to bring forward their state constitutional amendment securing rights.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Mar 8, 2016

Press Release: The People of Barrington, NH, Vote in Community Rights at Town Meeting

The people of Barrington, NH, adopt a Community Bill of Rights, asserting their right to clean air, pure water, and local, community self-government. The rights-based ordinance bans corporate gravel extraction and water withdrawals as a violation of those rights.

Mar 8, 2016

Truthout: A New Strategy to Address Climate Change: Suing for Community Rights

As climate change catapults the planet toward ecological devastation, community rights emerges as a strategy to build a social and political movement addressing its root causes, shifting the rights of people and nature above corporate and special interests.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 8, 2016

News Lincoln County: Let the People Decide

Lincoln County, OR, residents urge a county judge to recognize the right of communities to gather signatures and vote on the people’s Community Bill of Rights initiative. Let the people decide.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 1, 2016

Monadnock Ledger-Transcript: Viewpoint – Let’s give power back to people

New Hampshire State House Representative Susan Emerson calls for the legislature to place a Community Rights state constitutional amendment forward for a vote by the people of New Hampshire, to secure their inalienable right to local community self-government.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 29, 2016

Green Party of England and Wales Adopts Rights of Nature Policy: CELDF Assisted in Drafting New Rights-Based Plank

CELDF assists the Green Party of England and Wales to draft a Rights of Nature policy platform, which was adopted by the Party on Sunday. The policy calls for the recognition of the rights of nature to exist and flourish.

Green Party of England and Wales’ Rights of Nature Policy

On February 28th, the Green Party of England and Wales adopted a Rights of Nature policy, drafted in partnership with CELDF. Read the language here.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 28, 2016

CELDF Statement: Corporations Successful in Blocking Spokane from Voting on Community Bill of Rights

In a move reflective of efforts by the corporate state to quash citizens’ initiatives across the U.S., the Washington Supreme Court recently denied Spokane residents the right to vote on their Community Bill of Rights Charter Amendment.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Feb 27, 2016

The Bradford Era: Highland Twp. residents to vote on home rule charter in April

Highland Township, PA, residents to vote on home rule as a tool to advance community rights and protect themselves from a fracking wastewater injection well. Seneca Resources Corporation is claiming a corporate “right” to site the well.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 27, 2016

In Remembrance of Gail Darrell

Today marks the one year anniversary of the passing of our friend, mentor, and colleague, Gail Darrell. We at CELDF join the NHCRN in celebrating her life, mourning her passing, and expressing gratitude for her legacy of service to community and democratic rights.

New Hampshire Legislative Committee Deceives Community Rights Supporters

Community Rights state constitutional amendment in New Hampshire receives outpouring of support from residents, and disregard from the legislative committee. The measure advances to the House for debate with unwaivering commitment from Granite Staters.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 21, 2016

NH Legislature Holds First-in-Nation Public Hearing on “Community Rights” State Constitutional Amendment

For the first time in the U.S., a state legislative committee held a public hearing on a Community Rights state constitutional amendment. Residents from across New Hampshire testified in support of the measure as they face an onslaught of harmful corporate projects in their communities.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Feb 18, 2016

Ohio Street Theater Production: The People vs. the Corporate State

The Ohio Community Rights Network partners with Medina County residents to stage The People vs. the Corporate State. Check out the David vs. Goliath production.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 17, 2016

The Medina-Gazette: Public airs concerns over NEXUS station with EPA

The Ohio Community Rights Network presented a street theater production prior to the Ohio EPA’s public meeting on the proposed compressor station, which is part of the NEXUS Gas Transmission project

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 16, 2016

Cleveland.com: No new oil, gas well applications in Broadview Heights, despite court case supporting drillers

Broadview Heights, OH, residents’ strong stand to block new drilling wells keeps fracking out and oil and gas companies away.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 16, 2016

The Laconia Daily Sun: Come to Concord Thurs. and advocate for local self-governance

As NH communities are threatened with unsustainable development, they are advancing community rights at the state level to ensure their right to protect themselves is recognized. The House Constitutional Amendment Concurrent Resolution 14 (CACR 14), the NH Community Rights Amendment, will be considered at a hearing by the House Legislative Administration Committee in Concord today, 2/18, at 9:00 am.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Feb 10, 2016

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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’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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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 29, 2015

Spokane: Ballot Box and Court Room for Rights

This November, Spokane, WA, residents led groundbreaking work in advancing worker rights, and made a stand for community rights in the Washington Supreme Court.

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

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

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

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

November Elections Update

Learn the latest news from election day in Grant Township and West Chester, PA; Youngstown, OH; and Spokane, WA. And check out the launch of our new website!

Nov 9, 2015

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

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

2024 Year-end Newsletter: Living in Nature

Order Your Copy Today of CELDF's New Publication - Wouldn't You Say?

CELDF's Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

Press Release: Barnstead, NH, Adopts First-in-the-Nation Law Protects Against Religious Persecution, Including Religious I.D. Requirements

Press Release: Colorado Supreme Court Rules Local Self-Government State Constitutional Amendment Can Advance to Next Stage Toward Ballot

Geddry.com: Bucking the establishment anti-LNG crowd

The Athens News: County group plans to bring charter proposal back in November

Fosters.com: Barrington narrowly approves ordinance to protect waterways

Press Release: “Community Rights” State Constitutional Amendment Supporters Set Sights on 2017

Press Release: The People of Barrington, NH, Vote in Community Rights at Town Meeting

Truthout: A New Strategy to Address Climate Change: Suing for Community Rights

News Lincoln County: Let the People Decide

Monadnock Ledger-Transcript: Viewpoint – Let’s give power back to people

Green Party of England and Wales Adopts Rights of Nature Policy: CELDF Assisted in Drafting New Rights-Based Plank

Green Party of England and Wales’ Rights of Nature Policy

CELDF Statement: Corporations Successful in Blocking Spokane from Voting on Community Bill of Rights

The Bradford Era: Highland Twp. residents to vote on home rule charter in April

In Remembrance of Gail Darrell

New Hampshire Legislative Committee Deceives Community Rights Supporters

NH Legislature Holds First-in-Nation Public Hearing on “Community Rights” State Constitutional Amendment

Ohio Street Theater Production: The People vs. the Corporate State

The Medina-Gazette: Public airs concerns over NEXUS station with EPA

Cleveland.com: No new oil, gas well applications in Broadview Heights, despite court case supporting drillers

The Laconia Daily Sun: Come to Concord Thurs. and advocate for local self-governance

Citizen.com: Let the People Vote

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

Community Rights Paper #11: Slaves in all but Name

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

The Ledger Transcript: Support Community Rights in NH

National Community Rights Network endorses proposed New Hampshire state constitutional amendment

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

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

Community Rights Paper #10: Paradise Lost

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

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

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

New Hampshire Community Rights Amendment Moves Closer to Committee Public Hearing

Community Rights Papers #8: A Touch of Class

New Hampshire Community Rights Justified Heritage

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

Guest Opinion: Pushing for community rights

Two Landslide Wins in PA

CELDF Celebrates 20 Years!

Keene Sentinel: Rindge state rep wants to amend NH constitution

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

Spokane: Ballot Box and Court Room for Rights

The BG News: Environmental lawyer calls for revolt against corporations

Students, Communities Protest Proposed Pipeline

Oil & Gas Industry vs. Community Rights

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

November Elections Update

Eagle Times: Legislators take a stand for NH community rights

The Medina-Gazette: NEXUS gas compressor sparks concerns

Support just, fair, and sustainable communities