2024 Year-end Newsletter: Living in Nature
We hope you enjoy the articles, factoids, features, and spotlights of the…
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Newsletters, Resources
Jan 22, 2012
News From the Community Rights Movement
Jan 19, 2012
The Best Government the 1% Can Buy
Is Reversing Citizens United or Corporate Personhood Enough?
Read More | News from the GrassrootsJan 1, 2012
Statement on Efforts to Amend the U.S. Constitution following Citizens United
A great deal of activism has emerged in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC. In that case, the Court declared that corporate First Amendment “free speech” rights were violated by federal law which limited corporate spending in elections. Following the ruling, several groups began working to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution to overturn Citizens United. CELDF was invited to participate in those efforts based on our ongoing legislative work on corporate “rights.”… As the Legal Defense Fund has observed the national activism following the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, we’ve declined to participate in proposed efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution for two main reasons.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsNov 18, 2011
Marcellus Protest 2011: November 18th – Power to the People, Not the Corporations
Be part of something big. Something really big! Plan to join us on November 18th in State College, PA at the Penn State University campus for Marcellus Protest 2011: “Power To The People, Not The Corporations” rally.
Read More | Community WiresNov 15, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Peters council opposes proposed drilling regulations
Less than a week after residents in Peters overwhelmingly voted to reject a ban on Marcellus Shale gas drilling, council members passed a resolution opposing legislation that would further restrict the zoning powers of municipalities. Council members unanimously voted Monday night to pass the resolution in response to a state House bill that would eliminate local zoning regulations in favor of new statewide rules governing gas well drilling operations.
Read More | Community WiresNov 15, 2011
This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement
The editors of YES! Magazine bring together voices from inside and outside Occupy Wall Street to convey the issues, possibilities, and personalities associated with the movement. Featuring contributions by CELDF’s Thomas Linzey, Naomi Klein, David Korten, Rebecca Solnit, Ralph Nader, and others, This Changes Everything offers insights for those actively protesting or expressing support for the movement, and for the millions more who sympathize with the goal of a more equitable and democratic future.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 13, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Election showed fracking’s key role in region
Right up to Election Day, Peters residents were receiving sleek fliers in the mail encouraging them to vote against a referendum to ban gas drilling in the Washington County community. The mailers weren’t coming from local opposition, but from Houston-based industry group Consumer Energy Alliance.
Read More | Community WiresNov 10, 2011
Philly.com: Pittsburgh suburb: No to drill ban
By a ratio of more than 4-1, voters in an affluent Pittsburgh suburb said natural-gas drilling could go on in their township. In Tuesday’s general election, nearly 5,200 Peters Township voters rejected a referendum proposal that would have barred drilling, compared with a little more than 1,100 who voted for a ban.
Read More | Community WiresNov 9, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Who knows best: On drilling, Republicans sell out on local control
Republicans often say they are advocates of local control, repeating bromides such as “the people know better than the politicians or bureaucrats.” But not when it comes to Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania. On this subject, the politicians and bureaucrats are poised to tell the people that they know best — and never mind the local concerns of residents of municipalities across the state who will have to live with the results. Harrisburg knows best.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 9, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Bid to ban drilling in Peters is defeated; voters in State College succeed
Despite the work of a very determined group of citizens, a referendum banning Marcellus Shale gas drilling was overwhelmingly defeated Tuesday in Peters, Washington County….A similar measure in the city of Warren, Warren County, also was defeated, though one in the borough of State College, in Centre County, was approved by voters there.
Read More | Community WiresNov 9, 2011
Real Clear Politics: Upscale Pittsburgh suburb rejects drilling ban
By a margin of more than four-to-one, voters in an affluent Pittsburgh suburb say natural gas drilling can go on in their township. In Tuesday’s general election, nearly 5,200 Peters Township voters rejected a referendum that would have barred drilling, compared with just over 1,100 who voted for a ban….Jules Lobel, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who represented the anti-drilling group in court, said the issue concerned the “whole question of local control over one’s life, over things that matter.”
Read More | Community WiresNov 8, 2011
CELDF Press Release: State College Voters Adopt Community Rights Charter Amendment That Bans Gas Drilling
By a vote of 72% in favor, the people of the Borough of State College, home of Penn State University, adopted an amendment to their home rule charter that constitutionalizes a Local Bill of Rights, and protects those rights by prohibiting natural gas extraction and associated activities.
Read More | Community WiresNov 8, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Gas-drilling ban stalls in Peters
Despite the work of a determined group of citizens, a referendum banning Marcellus Shale gas drilling was overwhelmingly defeated in the Washington County township of Peters tonight….The referendum was among one of the first in the nation in which voters had a direct voice in determining whether gas well drilling — and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — should be allowed in their neighborhoods.
Read More | Community WiresNov 6, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Drilling war in Peters fought on the ballot
Amid the sea of colorful, plastic campaign signs scattered around Peters are angrier, bolder signs flapping in the wind, screaming “VOTE NO!! Protect Your Township,” and “Vote Yes! Protect Our Property Values.” They are part of the battle for the hearts and minds of voters in this affluent municipality of about 21,000 residents. The fight, which has already garnered attention from the national media, pits residents and energy companies who advocate drilling in the Marcellus Shale gas formation against a citizens group that is seeking to ban it in Washington County’s most populous municipality through a voter referendum on Tuesday.
Read More | Community WiresNov 3, 2011
When Civil Rights Matter: The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit, public interest law firm providing free and affordable legal services to communities facing threats to their local environment, local agriculture, the local economy, and quality of life.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 3, 2011
Peters Patch: Letter to the Editor: A Resident’s Reply
Mr. Merrell recently posted an open letter to the people of Peters in which he made several assertions regarding the content of the ballot referendum. Based on the development of the western intellectual tradition in the last century in relation to environmental ethics, environmental law, and human rights, I respectfully disagree with several of his comments and conclusions. Further it is my contention that the referendum is not a meaningless document but the natural outgrowth of the western intellectual tradition that has its origin in the philosophies of the Enlightenment thinkers.
Read More | Community WiresNov 1, 2011
StateCollege.com: State College Council Members Fight Environmental Proposal, Cite Procedural Concerns
With a week left before Election Day, a State College Borough Council majority has begun lobbying against a proposed borough-charter amendment. The amendment would add an environmental bill of rights and a ban on commercial natural-gas drilling to the borough charter, the municipality’s governing document. Groundswell PA, a local environmental-advocacy group, has led the charge for the amendment.
Read More | Community WiresOct 31, 2011
Oct 11, 2011
Turning Occupation into Lasting Change
If the Occupy movement is to succeed over time, it must follow the lead of community rights building efforts that have begun work to dismantle the body of law that perpetually subordinates people, communities, and nature to wealthy corporate minorities.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsOct 5, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Natural gas drilling ban remains on Peters ballot
Peters officials do not plan to challenge a judge’s decision to allow a controversial referendum question on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election that, if passed, would prohibit new natural gas extraction and likely spur lawsuits over access to Marcellus Shale deposits…. Washington County Common Pleas Judge Paul Pozonsky Monday dismissed an attempt by the township to block the referendum. In a brief order, the judge wrote that he could not act before the election because there was no “immediate harm caused by the presence of the measure on the ballot.”
Read More | Community WiresOct 4, 2011
CELDF Press Release: “Peters Township Citizens Prevail: Local Bill of Rights and Fracking Ban to Appear on Ballot”
Washington County Judge Paul Pozonsky turned down a request by Peters Township Council to bar a referendum question from appearing on the ballot in November that, if approved by the voters, would create a local Bill of Rights and ban fracking. Judge Pozonsky ruled that the court lacks jurisdiction to impose an injunction against the proposed home rule charter amendment, and that allowing the voters to approve or deny the adoption of the amendment did not create an immediate harm to the township.
Read More | Community WiresSep 28, 2011
Envision Spokane: Worker Rights, Not Corporate Employer Rights
Cross the threshold into a private workplace and POOF!, your constitutional rights disappear. It’s true. Gone go your First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, but not so for corporate employers.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 28, 2011
Envision Spokane: River Rights, Not Corporate Polluter Rights
Prop. 1 would establish the highest protections for the River and Aquifer – recognizing their rights to exist; it then provides for us – as Spokane residents – the ability to enforce those rights.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 28, 2011
Envision Spokane: Neighborhood Rights, Not Corporate Developer Rights
Today, corporate developers have more rights than our neighborhoods. Prop. 1 would require developers to obtain neighborhood approval for zoning changes involving significant development. It means residents, not developers, would have the final say.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 28, 2011
Envision Spokane: Community Rights, not Corporate Rights
It is time to reign in corporation so that they serve people, not the other way around. In Spokane, corporations are given the same legal rights as naturally born people even though there is nothing natural about them. Combine corporate legal rights with enormous corporate wealth and all of us naturally born people lose our ability to create communities that reflect our values.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 14, 2011
Observer-Reporter: Unclear if referendum will make PT ballot in election
With less than two months to go before the Nov. 8 general election, it’s still unclear whether a referendum on a home rule charter amendment will make its way onto the ballot in Peters Township.
Read More | Community WiresSep 13, 2011
The Almanac: PT advances gas referendum
Peters Township Council voted unanimously Monday to let a Washington County Court judge determine whether a referendum on a home rule-charter amendment seeking to ban natural gas drilling in the municipality is legal and can appear on the ballot in November. About 2,400 registered township voters signed a petition presented Aug. 8 to Washington County Director of Elections Larry Spahr seeking the referendum on a home rule-charter amendment.
Read More | Community WiresSep 13, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Peters council heads to court to block shale referendum
A lawyer representing Peters council is expected to be in Washington County court this morning in an attempt to block a voter referendum on whether to ban natural gas drilling. “In my opinion, it’s patently illegal,” said solicitor William Johnson. The referendum, which is slated to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot, asks Peters voters whether to ban gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — of the Marcellus Shale, and other natural gas extraction activities.
Read More | Community WiresSep 13, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Judge to rule on Peters drilling referendum
A Washington County judge has set a Sept. 28 hearing for arguments over whether to block a voter referendum on natural gas drilling in Peters. At a brief hearing this morning, Judge Paul Pozonsky said he will try to make a decision about a petition from Peters Solicitor William Johnson before the first week in October, when absentee ballots for the general election are to be printed and mailed.
Read More | Community WiresSep 12, 2011
The Raw Story: Penn. township challenges fracking with ballot initiative
A small township in western Pennsylvania is fighting back against fracking and attempting to write a ban on the practice into their local Bill of Rights, but they may be thwarted by their own town council. Peters Township in Washington County, population 21,213, is home to the Peters Township Marcellus Shale Awareness Group, an activism group formed after residents viewed Josh Fox’s anti-fracking documentary “GasLand.” PTMSA collected 2,422 signatures to place their Home Rule Charter amendment on the ballot on November 8 of this year, asking the question below.
Read More | Community WiresSep 11, 2011
Aug 31, 2011
Why Local Communities Need to Assert Their Inalienable Rights to Self-Government
This is not just about newly unlimited corporate campaign contributions; it is about direct corporate decision-making in our communities.
Read More | UncategorizedAug 30, 2011
CELDF: The Real Frackasaurus Coloring Book
On November 15, 2010, South Fayette Township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania passed a zoning ordinance regulating the location of oil and gas extraction activities in the municipality.
Read More | UncategorizedAug 30, 2011
StateCollege.com: Proposed Gas-Drilling Ban, Environmental-Rights Question Set for State College Ballot
State College voters will decide Nov. 8 on a proposed borough-charter amendment — an amendment that would ban commercial gas drilling and establish environmental rights within borough limits. Elections-board members voted 3-0 Friday to include the referendum item as part of the borough’s general-election ballot. Earlier this summer, just more than 1,000 borough residents signed a petition to qualify the proposal for placement as a referendum item.
Read More | Community WiresAug 16, 2011
Envision Spokane Successfully Qualifies Initiative to the Ballot
Envision Spokane’s Brad Read on the “Community Bill of Rights” Initiative.
Read More | UncategorizedAug 5, 2011
CELDF’s Ben Price on Local Self Governance and Rights of Nature (Parts 1 through 3)
CELDF Projects Director Ben Prices talks with Simon Kaiwai of New Zealand, sharing knowledge of how communities have overcome such things as fracking, mining, water rights, human rights, GE, GMO, corporate personhood and unwanted state plans for their local environment.
Read More | UncategorizedJul 25, 2011
State College: As Anti-Drilling Push Unfolds, Penn State Campus Could Land in No-Drill Zone
For generations, Braden Crooks’ family has maintained a farm in Clarion County, in western Pennsylvania. Its lifeblood, as with so many other homesteads in that rural expanse of Pennsylvania, is its well water. “If we don’t have the well water, we can’t live there,” Crooks explained to me last week. “That’s very direct — very personal.” That direct, personal connection is helping to drive his leadership of Groundswell PA, the new environmental-advocacy group that Crooks, a 2011 Penn State landscape-architecture graduate, founded. We’ve written before about Groundswell, whose most immediate goal is to place, on State College general-election ballot for November, a voter referendum on an environmental bill of rights.
Read More | Community WiresMay 3, 2011
Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco
The Rights of Nature, The Case for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. Co-produced by Global Exchange, the Council of Canadians, The Pachamama Alliance, and Fundación Pachamama.
Read More | UncategorizedMay 3, 2011
Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco
Rights of Nature panel at Global Alliance for Rights of Nature, San Francisco.
Read More | UncategorizedApr 22, 2011
Wired: Giving Nature Its Own Rights Might Avert Future Oil Disasters
Considering the rights of ecosystems dates to 1972 with Christopher Stone, and has evolved today to local laws establishing Rights of Nature as a means to protect against destructive activities.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsFeb 23, 2011
Feb 19, 2011
Sabrina Artel’s Trailer Talk: The Marcellus Shale Water Project
The Marcellus Shale Water Project.
Read More | UncategorizedFeb 9, 2011
Buffalo NY Bans Fracking
On February 9th, 2011 Buffalo, NY became the first municipality in New York State to ban hydraulic fracking.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 25, 2011
Taking on Corporations and Giving Rights to Nature
Why 1 in 3 Children is Chronically Ill, and Wild Weather and Media Silence on Climate Connections.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 25, 2011
Democracy Matters Radio
Net Neutrality – Corporate Control of the Internet. And drilling Ohio. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 13, 2011
Cape Ann Beacon: Gloucester moves to protect its water supply
Gloucester, MA, residents insist local water must stay in local hands. City Council takes a step towards making sure that happens.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 10, 2011
Democracy Matters
Bailing out corporations, but not communities – a federal double standard? And Mora County, NM – community rights vs. fracking. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 10, 2011
‘Fracking’ issue tests citizens’ authority
Plain Township, Canton and other public officials currently face a direct human and environmental assault on their communities over “fracking” — vertical and horizontal gas drilling.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 5, 2011
Democracy Matters Radio
Net Neutrality – Corporate Control of the Internet. And drilling Ohio. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 4, 2011
Democracy Matters
Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields headlines our “Best of 2010” interviews on Democracy Matters
Read More | Uncategorized