To combat fracking and accomplish other community ends, charter groups seek more local authority This article by David DeWitt was published in The Athens News, November 28, 2017. A legal organization that has been working with a group of Athens County residents to put an anti-fracking county charter before voters the past three years is [...]
This article by Jackie Borchardt appeared on Cleveland.com, November 27, 2017. Efforts to give Ohioans more power to pass and enforce local laws that might conflict with state laws gained initial approval Monday. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Monday certified petitions for two proposed amendments to the state constitution: the Ohio Community Rights Amendment [...]
This audio interview with NH representative Ellen Read and CELDF’s Michelle Sanborn about the NH Community Rights state constitutional amendment took place on The Harmann Report, November 27, 2017. This 10 minute interview starts 31:00 into the podcast, and can be listened to HERE.
Let the People Decide A Press Release from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, from March 22, 2017. As state government and industry attempt to strip local self-governing authority from communities across the state, residents refuse to surrender their democratic and environmental rights. Working through the Ohio Community Rights Network (OHCRN), today they submitted two proposed [...]
This letter to the editor by board members of New Hampshire Community Rights Network appeared on Seacoast Online November 15, 2017. We are writing in support of the recently proposed State Constitutional amendment CACR19. This amendment would secure N.H. citizens’ right to self-government, thereby guaranteeing local communities the authority to protect the health, safety, and [...]
Measure would secure the right of local community self-government A Press Release from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, from November 14, 2017. Representative Ellen Read of Rockingham District 17 recently introduced a rights-based state constitutional amendment to guarantee the people in towns throughout New Hampshire the authority to enact local laws to protect the environment, [...]
This event took place on October 27, 2017 at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana. This 58 minute video can be viewed HERE. The Rights of Nature Symposium was held on October 27, 2017, at Tulane Law School in New Orleans. The Symposium was co-sponsored by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), CELDF's International Center for the Rights [...]
We The People have the right to protect ourselves. This original 29-minute interview with Paul Cienfuegos appeared on the Alliance for Democracy's Populist Dialogues TV show in Portland, Oregon on September 24, 2017. Community Rights organizer, Paul Cienfuegos, talks about the concept and history of community rights. Community Rights measures are characterized by three specific provisions [...]
This original article by Simon Davis-Cohen appeared in DeSmog on, September 24, 2017. Three years in a row, communities in Ohio have attempted to vote on initiatives that would grant them greater say over oil and gas development in their jurisdictions, but over and over again, appointed officials, some with direct ties to the fossil [...]
Court Creates Unattainable Mandate for People A Press Release from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, from September 21, 2017. COLUMBUS, OHIO: Today, the Ohio Supreme Court struck a blow to the people’s constitutional right to use citizen initiative to propose a county charter form of government. MORE...
