The Little Town That Sent a Corporation Packing
Published by Yes! Magazine May 27, 2010
Why controlling your water supply is so important
by Tara Lohan
In 2008, weeks after communities all over the United States celebrated the Fourth of July, the tiny town of Felton, Calif., marked its own holiday: Water Independence Day. With barbecue, music, and dancing, residents marked the end of Felton’s six-year battle [...]
Giving Nature Constitutional Rights
Published by Yes! Magazine on March 2, 2010
Simply regulating pollution will never really stop it. Mari Margil of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund discusses why we need a fundamental change in the way we use law to protect nature.
The environmental movement, with its army of professional advocates, lawyers, grassroots campaigners, and dedicated funders, has [...]
Court’s Campaign Money Ruling Is a Red Herring
by Jane Anne Morris
Before running off trying to counter the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), we ought to sort out what this decision does and does not do.
The Citizens United decision does make our democracy theme park a little worse, the way having an atomic bomb dropped on [...]
Will Supreme Court Radicals Gut the Commerce Clause?
Now that the radical majority on the Supreme Court — the activist conservative judges — have overturned a century of precedent and settled law with their decision in Citizens United v FEC, they may soon have an opportunity to overturn the longstanding use of the Commerce Clause as the basis for federal environmental laws such [...]
Will the Citizens United Ruling Let Hugo Chavez and King Abdullah Buy U.S. Elections?
This post was originally published on January 22, 2010 on the website of the Center for Public Integrity and is reprinted on Sierra Voices with CPI’s permission.
Supreme Court Ruling May Open Door to Foreign State-Owned Corporate Political Spending
By Aaron Mehta and Josh Israel
Some legal observers fear the ruling would open up the floodgates for any [...]
Small Town Takes on Mining Giant
The governing council of Blaine Township, Pennsylvania, decided that they will not allow coal mining giant, Consol Energy, to come in and destroy the township’s farms and streams by doing underground longwall mining, a technique now banned in Germany, where it was invented.
The tool they’re using to fight Consol Energy is something called “democracy.” They [...]
Whose Rights?
Published on Friday, January 22, 2010 by YES! Magazine
A new Supreme Court decision promotes corporate rights at the expense of the rights of citizens. What happens when the legal structure itself stands in the way of democracy?
by Thomas Linzey, Mari Margil
Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission—giving corporations the ability to spend [...]
Corporate Personhood Must Be Challenged
by Jane Anne Morris
(Editor’s note: The author wrote this article late in 2009 in anticipation of exactly the decision handed down yesterday by the Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United v FEC, a decision that some are calling the “mirror-image” of the Dred Scott decision of 1857. She has written extensively about the Supreme [...]
Notes on Some Wild & Scenic Film Festival Free Workshops
Yesterday we attended two of the many free workshops offered at the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival.
While waiting outside the council chamber in the Nevada City Hall for the first workshop to begin, we checked out the various displays by environmental organizations. We also chatted with the good people of Wildlife Rehabilitation & Release, where we picked up [...]
Most Important Under-Reported Story in American Politics
I’ve written twice recently (here and here) about the percolating issue of ”corporate personhood.”
Why do I say this is the “most important under-reported story in American politics?” Because the consequence of the pending Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission could be to overturn more than a century of settled law establishing [...]
