Search Results for: rights of nature

May 3, 2017

Blog: The US Constitution Is So 1789. It’s Time for a Serious Overhaul.

The 1% drive for a constitutional convention, advancing their own corporate interests. But we don’t need a convention. We need a whole new constitution.

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May 1, 2017

Press Release: Ohio Communities Assert Right to Propose Laws Protecting Themselves from Fracking

Ohio counties exercise their right to protect themselves from fracking activities using community rights. Residents begin gathering signatures for county charter initiatives, aiming for the November ballot.

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Apr 30, 2017

Press Release: “Free and Fair Elections” Initiative Would Ban Corporate Dollars in Local Elections

Youngstown, OH, residents launch a free and fair election bill of rights initiative for the November ballot. The measure would allow only city residents to make campaign contributions, and caps the contribution amount.

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Apr 25, 2017

Press Release: Oregon’s Right of Local Self-Government Vindicated

Oregon court protects the people’s right to initiative, rejecting the Secretary of State’s effort to block the people’s rights-based state constitutional amendment from the ballot.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Apr 5, 2017

PR: First Right to Climate Law Passes in Colorado

Lafayette, CO, is the first community in the state to adopt a right to climate ordinance, recognizing the right of residents to a healthy climate.

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Apr 3, 2017

PR: India Court Declares “Personhood” of Glaciers and Ecosystems

The High Court of Uttarakhand at Naintal in northern India issues a ruling declaring that glaciers and ecosystems have the rights of persons.

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Apr 3, 2017

Blog: Colorado Fracking “Win:” Redefining Victory

Colorado youth gained a win with the recent Court of Appeals decision regarding the COGCC and fracking permits. But how far does that win go?

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Apr 2, 2017

Who Needs Sanctuary? We All Do

People can’t be illegal, but policies that strip them of fundamental rights can be. What can we do? Govern ourselves in the places we live, establishing human rights to safety, dignity, and sanctuary.

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Mar 29, 2017

PR: The Corporate State of Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sues Townships with Community Rights Home Rule Charters to force in fracking injection wells.

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Mar 23, 2017

PR: Ohio / Pennsylvania Communities Rising Tour: Defying the Corporate State

Ohio and Pennsylvania residents are inundated with environmental harms, and have had enough. Join the Communities Rising tour, featuring voices from the front lines in the wave of direction action against the corporate state. Check it out here.

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Mar 22, 2017

PR: First in Ohio Ballot Initiative: Right to a Healthy Climate in Bowling Green

Bowling Green, OH, students and residents join together to advance a Community Rights Charter Amendment for the November ballot. The measure would establish a right climate – the first measure of its kind in the state.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Mar 9, 2017

CCBOR Media Release: Columbus Water Protectors Deliver Anti-Fracking Petitions to City Hall

Columbus, OH, residents to deliver more than 10,000 signatures to City Hall on Friday. Residents are working to place a Community Bill of Rights banning toxic fracking waste on the November ballot.

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

Feb 17, 2017

CELDF Blog: Worried about SCOTUS nominee Neil Gorsuch? Remember, movements don’t begin and end at the Supreme Court steps

Driving rights forward requires our joining together in advancing cultural and legal change – it will not begin with the Supreme Court.

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Jan 31, 2017

PR: Spokane Arrestees Sue U.S. Government: Seek to Overturn Federal Preemption of Local Control Over Coal and Oil Trains

CELDF files lawsuit against the federal government, asserting federal law preempting municipal control of fossil fuel rail shipments violates residents’ constitutional right to a healthy climate and local self-government.

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Jan 31, 2017

PR: Spokane Arrestees Sue U.S. Government: Seek to Overturn Federal Preemption of Local Health and Safety Laws Concerning Coal and Oil Trains

CELDF files lawsuit against the federal government, asserting federal law preempting municipal control of fossil fuel rail shipments violates residents’ constitutional right to a healthy climate and local self-government.

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Jan 21, 2017

Counterpunch: Get The Frack Out of Pennsylvania

Fiction mirrors reality, and author Lee Ballinger draws the parallels between a novel set in Pennsylvania describing the ravages of fracking, and the reality in Grant Township, where residents are fighting back to protect themselves and assert their rights.

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Jan 15, 2017

Blog: Matters of State Concern: The Tyranny of Preemption

The corporate state justifies obliterating local democracy through claims to be protecting the interests of residents across the state. We can no longer tolerate this tyranny.

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Jan 13, 2017

PR: Ecosystem and Residents File Motion to Intervene In Federal Lawsuit

Crystal Spring Ecosystem and residents of Highland Township, PA, filed to intervene in a lawsuit today. Parties are fighting to block Seneca Resources’ plans to site a frack wastewater injection well in the Township as a violation of their Home Rule Charter.

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Jan 7, 2017

Blog: From Standing Rock to Million Women March and Beyond…if There is One

From North Dakota to Washington, D.C., people are gathering to protect water, air, and soil, and to make a stand for justice and equality. What’s next?

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Jan 4, 2017

PR: Cease and Desist Letter Issued to Highland Township Supervisors

Highland Township, PA, supervisors concede they don’t have the authority to remove the Township’s Water Authority Board after receiving a cease and desist letter. Supervisors have been harassing the Board as the community fights an injection well.

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Dec 6, 2016

Blog: Fracking Resistance in the UK

The British are fighting to protect their communities from fracking, as we are in the U.S. We share a common history: the claimed rights of property exceed the rights of human and natural communities. People are fighting to change it.

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Dec 2, 2016

Ryan Talbott Joins CELDF Board of Directors

Ryan Talbott, an environmental lawyer, joins the Board of Directors of CELDF.

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Dec 1, 2016

2016: A Year in Review

What an amazing year – from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Hampshire, to Washington and Oregon, people are growing Community Rights and protecting their communities from corporate harms. Your support makes our work possible!

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Nov 29, 2016

Blog: The Police State Policing Police. How’s That Been Working for You?

We live in a corporatized police state. Violence to protect property and suppress people is condoned by the power elite. Rather than pleading for the system to reform itself, we must dismantle it and build anew.

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Nov 19, 2016

Blog: Propertied Privilege Trumps Democracy

Upset with the Electoral College and disturbed by the implications of who was elected President? Let’s look a little deeper and see what’s really going on – and how our “democratic” system is doing exactly what it was engineered to do.

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Nov 8, 2016

PR: Highland Township Bans Injection Wells, Rebukes Corporate Rule

Highland Township, PA, voters step up their fight to protect themselves from a frack wastewater injection well, adopting a rights-based Home Rule Charter banning the well, 55% to 45%.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Nov 6, 2016

CELDF Blog: From Absurd and Far-Fetched to Inalienable

As the predictable self-destruction of this culture of deceit and greed proceeds and accelerates, CELDF’s recommendations for change will become less “far-fetched” and “absurd.” They will at last seem inevitable and unavoidable.

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Oct 19, 2016

Doug Shields from We the People 2.0 – The Second American Revolution

Former Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields, featured in We the People 2.0, refuses to fold to the oil and gas industry, standing his ground to protect the City he loves.

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Oct 13, 2016

PR: Highland Township Government Study Commission Wins Motion to Intervene

Highland Township Government Study Commission wins their motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought on by Township Supervisors determined to keep the Commission’s Charter off the November ballot. Residents are fighting a frack waste injection well, using their right to local self-government.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 7, 2016

Press Release: Lincoln County Residents to Vote on Clean Air and Water in May 2017

Lincoln County, OR, residents qualify their Community Bill of Rights ordinance banning toxic aerial spraying for the May 2017 ballot.

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Oct 5, 2016

CELDF Statement: When Protecting Our Communities Becomes Criminal Activity

Oil and gas industry threatens criminal lawsuits against local elected officials taking a stand to protect their communities’ health, safety, and welfare. In Grant Township, PA, Township Supervisors are undeterred, vowing to continue their fight to protect their water from frack waste.

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Sep 13, 2016

Press Release: Right to Initiative Rendered Dead by Ohio Supreme Court

The Ohio Supreme Court finds on behalf of the oil and gas industry and the colluding state government. The people’s duly qualified rights-based county charter measures are again blocked from the ballot. One Justice dissents, defending the right to local self-government.

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Aug 15, 2016

Oregon Secretary of State Forces State Amendment into Court

Communities work to advance their right to local community self-government through the Oregon Community Rights Network, submitting a petition for a state constitutional amendment protecting that right. The Oregon Secretary of State attempts to block them from continuing.

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Aug 15, 2016

Tacoma Residents Refuse to Fold as Court Strikes Against Democracy

Tacomans refuse to surrender their rights as the court denies them access to initiative. Residents are working to protect their water – and their right to vote.

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Aug 15, 2016

Press Release: Democracy Ruled Dead in Highland Township

Highland Township Supervisors overturn their rights-based fracking wastewater injection well ban. They file a consent decree to allow an injection well, and receive approval by a federal judge. Residents vow to fight back and protect their community.

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Aug 9, 2016

Press Release: Secretary of State & Medina County Block Community’s Right to Vote

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted blocks Medina County residents from voting on their own County Charter initiative. Residents are filing with the Ohio Supreme Court to have their measure placed on the November ballot.

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Aug 3, 2016

Press Release: Ohio Secretary of State Husted Tries to Quash Democracy – Again

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Jul 26, 2016

Blog: 2016 – The Year Democracy Died?

While we may expect to see powerbrokers in both major political parties drown out grassroots voices, it’s happening at the local level as well. Local government officials and the judiciary act as corporate allies, killing the right to initiative across the U.S.

Read More | Community Wires

Jul 25, 2016

Press Release: Athens County Residents Fight for Right to Initiative

Athens County, OH, residents worked with CELDF to file a protest today against their Board of Elections. The Board blocked their qualified County Charter initiative banning fracking wastewater injection wells from the November ballot.

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Jul 15, 2016

OHCRN Statement: County Boards of Elections Attempt to Stifle Democracy: Meigs, Athens and Medina Counties

Efforts in Ohio by local Boards of Elections to block rights-based County Charter initiatives banning fracking fail to disempower We the People.

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May 18, 2016

Press Release: Court Overrides Josephine County’s Democratic Decision-Making

State preemption prevails again in this week’s decision from a Josephine County, OR, Circuit Court judge, overturning the people’s democratically enacted ban on GMOs.

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May 18, 2016

Guest Blog: Updating EPA Frack Waste Regulations: Let’s Call it What it Is

Guest blogger Tish O’Dell of Broadview Heights, OH, observes that efforts to update frack waste regulations perpetuates harm. It’s time to shift from slowing down the destruction of our communities and ecosystems, to stopping it.

Read More | Community Wires

May 3, 2016

Press Release: Pennsylvania Township Legalizes Civil Disobedience

Grant Township, PA, residents make history as the first community in the U.S. to legalize nonviolent civil disobedience to protect their community from a fracking wastewater injection well.

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Apr 26, 2016

Press Release: Highland Township Votes “Yes”to Consider Home Rule

As Highland Township, PA, residents fight to keep out a frack wastewater injection well, tonight they voted “yes” to form a study commission to consider a Home Rule form of government, which could expand local control.

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

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.

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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.

Read More | Community Wires, 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.

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Nov 3, 2015

Press Release: Despite Court Ruling, Grant Township Bans Fracking Injection Wells Again, Through Municipal Charter

The people of Grant Township, PA, adopt the first rights-based charter in the country banning frack wastewater injection wells, two weeks after a federal judge overturned portions of a Community Bill of Rights ordinance banning the wells.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Oct 15, 2015

Press Release: Grant Township, PA: The People Left Out of Court Decision

A U.S. District Court finds in favor of corporations to site a frack wastewater injection well in Grant Township, PA – ignoring the will and the rights of the people who live there. Grant residents consider an appeal, while growing numbers of residents seek a state constitutional amendment to protect their rights.

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Oct 5, 2015

Press Release: New Hampshire Legislature to Consider CELDF-Drafted State Constitutional Amendment

A CELDF-drafted state constitutional amendment recognizing the rights of communities to govern themselves is being introduced in the New Hampshire legislature.

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