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Aug 17, 2022

Grant Township Charter Struck Down by Commonwealth Court

While unjust, the ruling from the Commonwealth Court is not unexpected. Courts have routinely ruled against communities and the environment in favor of harmful corporate interests.

Wouldn’t You Say? – Personhood

The Right of Free Speech Includes the Right to Clean Air to Speak With Look, if corporate property can be called a legal person, and if that person has a right to speak freely, but no mouth, and if corporate-cozy judges can make us all pretend for real that spending money is the way corporate… Read more »

May 4, 2022

A Court Hearing for Grant Township: Eight Years Later, and Still No Injection Well

As many are aware, CELDF has stood with the people and ecosystems of Grant Township (Indiana County, PA, population 700) in their courageous efforts to keep a frack waste injection well out of the community.

Apr 14, 2022

The Ohio River Watershed: How to Keep it Healthy

PART 2: WHO SPEAKS FOR NATURE? APRIL PUBLIC FORUM – Women’s City Club of Greater CincinnatiTUESDAY, APRIL 19, 7 PM via ZOOM The forum will look at a new legal strategy for protecting our water and natural environment from the emerging new threats of industrial pollutants. PANELISTS Tish O’Dell, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)Susan… Read more »

Podcast with GrassRoot Ohio: Death by Democracy- Episode 2 – w/ Tish O’Dell

Carolyn Harding with Tish O’Dell, a powerful voice for justice in Ohio, the US, and Globally. Tish has been a Community Organizer for CELDF (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) since 2012 assisting residents to organize rights-based initiatives in their communities in order to help them “make real” the just and sustainable communities they envision for… Read more »

Mar 10, 2022

“New Normal” Needs a New Constitutional Amendment

“New Normal” Needs a New Constitutional Amendment discussion from the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference PIELC.

Feb 8, 2022

Thacker Pass Statement

We are firm in our support of human and civil rights for all people, including the transgender community, without exception.

Restoring Mother Earth Law

Restoring our relationship to nature means restoring our human systems, including the legal system, to function just as healthy ecosystems do. Learn and discuss how we’ve gotten to this point, what is happening now to transform deep structures, and how traditional ways and the efforts to include justice into law for humans and non-humans is moving more and more into reality.

Read More | Events

Nov 24, 2021

PA Constitutional Change

House Bill 1716 is a proposed amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. It would secure the right of self-government to every community in Pennsylvania.

NCRN hosts a conversation with CELDF lawyers

Join the NCRN in conversation with Karen Hoffman, Kira Kelly, Terry Lodge, and Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin

Read More | Events

Sep 17, 2021

Newsletter: Ohio Update

Ohio communities over the past decade have worked hard to protect ecosystems and their communities from various harmful projects. They did the work of asserting democratic rights to alter and reform their government. They collected signatures, argued in court, battled in lopsided campaigns and even won a few only to have the courts overturn their… Read more »

Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Community Wires, News

Aug 29, 2021

Preemption Workshop

On Thursday, September 9 at 6:30 pm, please join us for a workshop by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) “Preemption as a Lethal Weapon: How Corporations and Government are Deliberately Destroying Communities and Nature”.

Columbus Free Press: Lawsuit To Protect Direct Democracy In Columbus During The Pandemic Dismissed By Court

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 Grassroots

Feb 2, 2021

Protect the Protectors: Stop Line 3

Tribal nations, community and environmental groups in Minnesota have fought to stop the Line 3 Enbridge pipeline in Northern Minnesota. The pipeline violates several treaties with the Ojibwe people that establish their right to hunt, fish, and gather along the proposed route. The pipeline would cross 200 bodies of water, including the Mississippi River twice.

Jan 8, 2021

Newsletter: Momentum for Constitutional Change in Pennsylvania

In 2020, members of the Pennsylvania Community Rights Network engaged in a statewide support campaign for a state constitutional amendment to place the rights of people over the interests of private corporations – empowering communities to heighten state protections for civil, human and ecosystem rights.

Jan 4, 2021

Newsletter: Moments of Transition

The following is an excerpt from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund’s End of Year 2020 newsletter “Moments of Transition

Observing Revolution: Pennsylvania

Newsletter: CELDF has supported the efforts of Grant Township, PA as they engage in local lawmaking to successfully resist corporate contamination of water. Despite years of legal attacks by the private corporations, PA regulatory agencies, and the oil and gas industry, local residents of Grant Township have reasserted and continued to defend local lawmaking and protect the natural systems that sustain them.

Guest Blog: John Marshall: A Case Study of Institutional Racism

This essay discusses our courts of law as epitomes of institutional racism and the role played by Former Chief Justice John Marshall. This guest blog is part of a continuing effort to re-name law schools after Former Chief Justice Marshall, who owned over 200 slaves. Dealing with institutional racist past and trying to right some of the wrongs.

Read More | Community Wires, News, Press Releases & Blogs

Dec 11, 2020

Truthout: The American Petroleum Institute Is Working to Kill Voting on Local Measures

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.

Dec 10, 2020

Virtual Democracy School in Florida

Register today for this virtual Democracy School!

Read More | Events

Dec 8, 2020

Virtual Democracy School in Virginia

Register today for this virtual Democracy School in Virginia!

Read More | Events

Nov 27, 2020

Virtual Democracy School in Ashtabula

Register today for this virtual Democracy School in Ashtabula, Ohio! Co-sponsored by Ashtabula County Water Watch and CELDF.

Read More | Events

Nov 10, 2020

Observing Revolution: New Hampshire

Building statewide momentum across New Hampshire. A 2020 organizing update featured in our fall newsletter.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 10, 2020

CELDF REPORT: What Wasn’t Voted On (2020)

A new Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund report details the repression of ballot initiatives in 2020.

Read More | Blogs, News, Publications, Resource Links, Resources

Oct 30, 2020

Observing Revolution: Oregon

Communities across Oregon are taking a stand against corporate claimed rights.

Oct 28, 2020

Times of System Change

Protests are shifting the conditions of political action. Immediate structural change may be difficult to see – but it’s happening – culture is shifting. A dedicated and defiant movement is emerging and challenging the purpose of the law.

Read More | Blogs, Newsletters, Press Releases & Blogs

Oct 16, 2020

Protecting the Salish Sea in the Time of Covid-19

Read More | Events

Oct 15, 2020

Observing Revolution: Ohio

A 2020 organizing update from Ohio featured in our fall newsletter.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Sep 24, 2020

Press Release: Grant Township Moves to Dismiss PA DEP Lawsuit

Despite recognizing the Grant Townships local law to ban injection wells the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection continues to sue the township. CELDF files motion to dismiss on behalf of the community.

Read More | Press Releases, Press Releases & Blogs

Sep 17, 2020

Virtual Democracy School in Colorado

Register today for this virtual Democracy School in the Colorado area!

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 9, 2020

WANTED: Local Officials Willing to Fight the Corporate State to Protect People and the Environment During a Pandemic

The system is constructed to disempower communities, to the detriment of people and the planet. That is why we need to fight back and why we need local elected officials with courage to fight with us… not against us! A guest blog by Ohio organizer Tish O’Dell.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Jun 17, 2020

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

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

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 2, 2020

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

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

Apr 20, 2020

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 6, 2020

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.

Mar 30, 2020

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 17, 2020

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 4, 2020

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

Jan 27, 2020

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 19, 2020

The Blade: Lake Erie’s fate

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 Grassroots

Dec 19, 2019

Susquehanna: 2019: A Historic Year, and We Are Just Getting Started

2019 has been a remarkable year for CELDF and our partner communities. Check out what we are celebrating!

Nov 11, 2019

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

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 16, 2019

Press Release: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Attacks 4-Year-Old Community Water Protection Law

The people’s own Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania sues Grant Township to overturn a democratically enacted Home Rule charter that includes a ban on fracking wastewater injection wells. This was their day in court.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Oct 10, 2019

Media Statement: Constitutional Amendment Introduced in Pennsylvania

Community Rights advances to the state level as a Pennsylvania legislator introduces the “Local Self-Government Amendment,” elevating people and communities over corporations.

Oct 2, 2019

Media Statement: Court Issues Decision on Two Year Aerial Pesticides Ban in Lincoln County, Oregon

Lincoln County, Oregon, community members prepare to appeal judge’s denial of their right to protect themselves from aerial sprayed pesticides.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Announcing CELDF's Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

Sneak Peek! -- End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

Book: ‘Death by Democracy’

Grant Township Charter Struck Down by Commonwealth Court

Wouldn’t You Say? – Personhood

A Court Hearing for Grant Township: Eight Years Later, and Still No Injection Well

The Ohio River Watershed: How to Keep it Healthy

Podcast with GrassRoot Ohio: Death by Democracy- Episode 2 – w/ Tish O’Dell

“New Normal” Needs a New Constitutional Amendment

Thacker Pass Statement

Restoring Mother Earth Law

PA Constitutional Change

NCRN hosts a conversation with CELDF lawyers

Newsletter: Ohio Update

Preemption Workshop

Columbus Free Press: Lawsuit To Protect Direct Democracy In Columbus During The Pandemic Dismissed By Court

Protect the Protectors: Stop Line 3

Newsletter: Momentum for Constitutional Change in Pennsylvania

Newsletter: Moments of Transition

Observing Revolution: Pennsylvania

Guest Blog: John Marshall: A Case Study of Institutional Racism

Truthout: The American Petroleum Institute Is Working to Kill Voting on Local Measures

Virtual Democracy School in Florida

Virtual Democracy School in Virginia

Virtual Democracy School in Ashtabula

Observing Revolution: New Hampshire

CELDF REPORT: What Wasn’t Voted On (2020)

Observing Revolution: Oregon

Times of System Change

Protecting the Salish Sea in the Time of Covid-19

Observing Revolution: Ohio

Press Release: Grant Township Moves to Dismiss PA DEP Lawsuit

Virtual Democracy School in Colorado

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

WANTED: Local Officials Willing to Fight the Corporate State to Protect People and the Environment During a Pandemic

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

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

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

Stand With George Floyd: Life > Property

Press Release: Columbus Protecting Democracy During a Pandemic

50 Years of Earth Day – What Are We Celebrating?

People Power in a Time of Pandemic

Corporate America is on Offense, Local Communities Can Be Too

Community Stories: Claiming the Law

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

Press Release: Lake Erie’s Day in Court

The Blade: Lake Erie’s fate

Susquehanna: 2019: A Historic Year, and We Are Just Getting Started

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

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

Press Release: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Attacks 4-Year-Old Community Water Protection Law

Media Statement: Constitutional Amendment Introduced in Pennsylvania

Media Statement: Court Issues Decision on Two Year Aerial Pesticides Ban in Lincoln County, Oregon

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