A Rights-Based Ordinance to Protect the Health, Safety, and Welfare of Residents of [Town or County Name], [State Name] By Establishing A Bill of Rights; By Recognizing the Right to A Sustainable Digital Infrastructure, and By Prohibiting the Siting of High Frequency 5G Wireless** Projects That Violate the People’s Right to A Sustainable Digital Infrastructure.
Section 1. Purpose
Whereas, We The People of [Named Municipality or County] assert that our right of local community self-government to claim and protect our constitutionally-guaranteed right to safety is inherent, fundamental, and inalienable, and that – as the United States Declaration of Independence proclaimed – governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed; and
Each local ordinance would plug in their own state constitution’s equivalent text as we have plugged in here from Oregon’s Constitution: Whereas, the Oregon State Constitution recognizes that “All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness”; and
Whereas, We The People of [Named Municipality or County] understand the current system of municipal governance fails to recognize the self-governing authority of the people of [Named Municipality or County] because corporations may unjustly assert their Constitutional “rights” to override our laws, our local government operates on the erroneous assumption that corporate “rights” trump those of the people, state or federal legislators and agencies interfere with our local government at will, and this illegitimate system bans our local government from adopting laws which have not been authorized by the state; and
Whereas, more than 180 scientists from 36 countries submitted a Scientist Appeal for 5G Moratorium to the European Union in 2017, calling for a moratorium on the expansion of the 5G network in Europe “until the potential risks to human health and the environment have been thoroughly investigated by scientists independent of industry”. The scientists’ Appeal contains this sentence: “Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders…”; and
Whereas, High Frequency 5G Wireless** technology was brought to market with no safety testing, and a safe level of microwave radiation has never been identified; and
Whereas, the 1996 Telecommunications Act prohibits a local government from removing a cell tower, even for health or environmental reasons once it has been installed, presenting a scenario where telecommunications companies hold zero liability for damage to persons, planet and property caused by their technologies and products; and
Whereas, there are a number of well documented areas of significant danger and risks posed by the mandatory deployment of thousands of High Frequency 5G Wireless** small cells in every community, installed every 2 to 10 houses, creating an inescapable cloud of electromagnetic (EMR) radiation, such as:
- Surveillance Risks: Expansion of global and ubiquitous surveillance while undermining privacy and the basis for a democratic civic society.
- Cyber-Security Risks: Exponentially more cyber-security risk than current systems.
- Environmental Risks: Collapse of insect populations (including pollinators), birds and other wildlife. Rise in bacterial resistance and bacterial shifts. Damage to plants and trees.
- Economic Risks: Escalation of current inequalities that deepen the digital divide between rich and poor. High Frequency 5G Wireless** cells in front of homes are proven to undermine the resale value of the home.
- Sovereignty Risks: Further loss of local residents’ democratic control and authority, and local ability to protect residents from experimental technology and data theft of all kinds.
- Health Risks: Damage to the eyes – cataracts, retina; immune system disruption; metabolic disruption; damage to reproductive organs, sperm count and motility, and skin. Most serious risks are for children; and
Whereas, the secondary insurance market, most notably Lloyd’s of London, has stated in its “Emerging Risks Team Report” from 2010, in a section titled, “Lessons From Asbestos”: “The predicted cost of asbestos to the insurance industry is still rising. … The comparison here with EMF is obvious – if it is proven to cause cancer, then the injuries may not become clear until many years after the exposure due to similarly long latency periods. The danger with EMF is that, like asbestos, the exposure insurers face is underestimated and could grow exponentially and be with us for many years.”; and
Whereas, community owned and controlled fiber networks have been proven to be far faster and much safer than corporate owned and controlled High Frequency 5G Wireless** networks; and
Whereas, increasing numbers of local governments are successfully operating fiber networks as public utilities – offering lower prices, assurance of data privacy and security, local revenue generation that can fund and support public needs such as affordable housing and education, reduced rates for low-income households and marginalized residents, and a guarantee of net neutrality to all of their customers; and
Now therefore, We The People of [Named Municipality or County] hereby adopt this Ordinance, which shall be known and may be cited as the “Right to A Sustainable Digital Infrastructure and Community Self-Government Ordinance”.
Section 2. Statement of Law – Community Bill of Rights
(a) Right to a Sustainable Digital Infrastructure. All residents in [Named Municipality or County] possess a right to a sustainable digital infrastructure, and the people of [Named Municipality or County] have the right to adopt laws and policies to secure that right. “Sustainable digital infrastructure” as used by this provision means: that digital infrastructure that is:
- publicly owned and operated by a village, town, township, city or county government, or
- owned and operated by a worker cooperative or consumer cooperative, or
- owned and operated by a non-profit organization chartered in the state where its day to day operations are located.
(b) Right to Privacy. All residents possess a right to privacy in the digital environment, above the level provided by the state and US Constitutions. “Right to privacy” as used by this provision shall mean: “The right to privacy is our right to keep a domain around us, which includes all those things that are part of us, such as our body, home, property, thoughts, feelings, secrets and identity. The right to privacy gives us the ability to choose which parts in this domain can be accessed by others, and to control the extent, manner and timing of the use of those parts we choose to disclose.” [Privacy in the Digital Environment, Haifa Center of Law & Technology (2005)]
(c) Right to Net Neutrality. All residents possess a right to have their Internet service providers (ISPs) treat all data fairly that travels over their networks, without improper discrimination in favor of particular apps, sites or services, to protect the future of our open Internet. [Electronic Frontier Foundation]
(d) Governmental Legitimacy. All governments owe their existence to the people of the community that those governments serve, and governments exist to secure and protect the rights of the people and those communities. Any system of government that becomes destructive of those ends is not legitimate, lawful, or constitutional.
(e) Right to Local Community Self-Government. All residents of [Named Municipality or County] possess the fundamental and inalienable right to a form of governance where they live which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that all free governments are founded on the people’s authority and consent, and that corporate entities and their directors and managers shall not enjoy special privileges or powers under the law which make community majorities subordinate to them.
(f) People as Self-Governing. The [Named Municipality or County] shall be the governing authority responsible to, and governed by, the residents of [Named Municipality or County]. Use of the [Named Municipality or County] corporation by the people of the [Town/County] to make law shall not be construed to limit or surrender the authority or immunities of the people to a municipal corporation that is subordinate to them in all respects at all times. The people at all times enjoy and retain an inalienable and indefeasible right to self-governance in the community where they reside.
(g) Rights as Self-Executing. All rights delineated and secured by this ordinance are inherent, fundamental, and unalienable, and shall be self-executing and enforceable against both private and public actors.
Section 3. Statement of Law – Prohibitions Necessary to Secure the Community Bill of Rights
(a) It shall be unlawful for any business entity or governmental entity to violate any right secured by this ordinance.
(b) It shall be unlawful for any business entity, other than a worker cooperative or consumer cooperative, or a non-profit organization chartered in the state, or a locally governed public utility, to engage in the planning, design, construction or operation of High Frequency 5G Wireless** digital infrastructure, or to engage in land acquisition necessary for any of these purposes.
Section 4. Enforcement
(a) Any business entity or governmental entity that violates any provision of this ordinance is liable to a civil penalty of $10,000 per day of violation.
(b) [Named Municipality or County] or any resident of [Named Municipality or County] may enforce the rights and prohibitions of this ordinance through an action brought in any court possessing jurisdiction over activities occurring within [Named Municipality or County]. In such an action, [Named Municipality or County] or the resident shall be entitled to recover all costs of litigation, including, without limitation, expert and attorney’s fees.
(c) A business entity that violates this Ordinance, or seeks to violate this Ordinance, shall not be deemed to be “persons” to the extent that such treatment would interfere with the rights or prohibitions enumerated by this Ordinance; nor shall business entities possess any other legal rights, privileges, powers, or protections that would interfere with the rights or prohibitions enumerated by this Ordinance. “Rights, privileges, powers, or protections” shall include the power to assert state or federal preemptive laws, including eminent domain powers, in an attempt to overturn this Ordinance, and the power to interfere with the authority of the [municipality/county] to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its residents.
(d) A business entity’s claim to regulatory takings or future lost profits shall not be considered property interests under this ordinance, and thus, shall not be recoverable by a business entity seeking those damages.
(e) If [Named Municipality or County] fails to enforce or defend this law, or a court fails to uphold this law’s limitations on corporate power, this law shall not be affected by the failure to enforce or defend, or by the failure to uphold the limitations on corporate power, and any person may then enforce the rights and prohibitions of this law through nonviolent civil disobedience. If enforcement through nonviolent civil disobedience is commenced, this law prohibits any private or public actor from filing a civil or criminal action against those participating in nonviolent civil disobedience. If filed in violation of this provision, the applicable court must dismiss the action promptly, without further filings being required of nonviolent civil disobedience participants. “Nonviolent civil disobedience” as used by this provision shall mean any nonviolent activities or actions carried out to directly enforce the rights and prohibitions contained within this law.
Section 5. State and Federal Constitutional Changes
Through the adoption of this ordinance, the people of [Named Municipality or County] call for an amendment of the [Named State] State Constitution and the United States Constitution to confirm the existing right to local self-government free from governmental preemption and or nullification by corporate “rights”.
Section 6. Severability
The provisions of this ordinance are severable. If any court decides that any section, clause, sentence, part, or provision of this ordinance is illegal, invalid, or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect, impair, or invalidate any of the remaining sections, clauses, sentences, parts, or provisions of the ordinance.
** There are numerous descriptive names for what is generally but inadequately referred to as “5G” which is primarily a technology industry marketing label. For the purposes of this Model Ordinance, you may choose to rename “High Frequency 5G Wireless” as “5G Wireless” or “High Frequency” or “devices emitting electromagnetic energy in the radio frequency spectrum above 0.5 GHz”, or whatever terms you consider most accurate. There is a lot of disagreement about this terminology.
This Model Ordinance was created by Community Rights US. You have our permission to share it widely. Please note that more than 200 similarly constructed Community Rights ordinances have already been passed by local jurisdictions in twelve states, and the vast majority of them have not been legally challenged. These ordinances cover topics such as corporate mining, water withdrawal, pesticide spraying, fracking, factory farming, and more. We will be releasing two new ordinances this Spring: A ‘Pollinator Bill of Rights’, and a ‘Housing Bill of Rights’. Sign up for our monthly newsletter HERE to stay informed about our work.
Community Rights US offers in-person and online introductory and intensive workshops to help any community to launch a Community Rights ordinance campaign. We look forward to working with your community!
We can email you this full document as a Word or pdf attachment. Please direct all enquiries about this Model Ordinance to Community Rights US Director Paul Cienfuegos <Paul@CommunityRights.US> .