Green Justice

11/15/2021

About time!

Homer Plessy, whose 19th century case Plessy v. Ferguson became a landmark civil rights Supreme Court ruling, is only a step away from a posthumous full pardon from the state of Louisiana.

04/06/2021

Maxwell Smith is on a mission to make sure no one loses a child the way he lost his 14-year-old daughter, Zalee Gail Day-Smith. Zalee, a vivacious high school freshman who loved singing, died on Feb ruary 28 when oil tanks exploded near her home in Beauregard, Louisiana. “Her body was thrown 200

03/02/2021

Sierra Club wins victory for tiny Florida Key Deer in US District Court!

On Friday, February 26, 2021, a district court agreed with Sierra Club that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) was improperly refusing to make public an Endangered Species Act "Species Status Assessment" report regarding the endangered Florida Key deer. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the release of this "purely factual scientific report" pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. The court also found that the agency had failed to justify its refusal to release other records related to this report, such as communications from agency scientists regarding its contents. Release of this report will help shed light on the Fish & Wildlife Service's inexplicable rush during the Trump administration to strip the species of Endangered Species Act protections despite severe population losses from Hurricane Irma and screw worm disease, and the devastating impacts of sea level rise, which will extirpate the species absent drastic action.

For Immediate Release March 1, 2021 Contact: Karimah Schoenhut, 202-548-4584, [email protected] Diana Umpierre, 954-829-763...

01/26/2021

Some good news from out west.

The Department of Interior will have to reassess its decision to deny the Chinook Indian Nation the small sum it awarded 50 years ago for the vast territory surrounding the Lower Columbia River, wh…

10/01/2020

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just ignored massive public opposition and science to issue a permit for an industrial fish farm to pollute the ! Wow. At least it wasn't 5pm on a Friday (just 5pm on a Thursday)!
Learn more here: https://www.epa.gov/.../ocean-era-inc-velella-epsilon...

09/25/2020

Here we go again - AQUAA Act introduced into the Senate yesterday. So disappointing. This terrible bill will allow development of industrial fish farms off our coasts. Seemingly these Senators - Roger Wicker, Senator Brian Schatz and especially Senator Marco Rubio - are unaware the U.S., and the Gulf of Mexico and Florida in particular, are in crisis. All they can focus on is funneling $ to international corporations while destroying our coastal economies, communities, waters and beaches? Yikes.

Senators Advance Controversial Aquaculture Bill, Threatening Coastal Economies and Ecosystems September 25, 2020 by Audrey Fox WASHINGTON, D.C.— Senators Roger Wicker (R-MO), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) have introduced Senate Bill 4723, which would pave the way for the federal gover...

09/23/2020

Hey - volunteer attorneys are needed for the Louisiana State Bar Association “Lawyers AND Libraries” week of service, October 26-31, 2020! Volunteers will provide virtual assistance to individuals who may be in even more need of legal direction due to the pandemic and recent disasters. Participation in this program does not require a large time commitment--two hours of individual 10-15-minute virtual consultations. Materials and resources to assist volunteers are provided in this guide, and the LSBA will coordinate details for volunteer attorneys to provide virtual advice. Volunteers can sign up at www.LouisianaLawyersinLibraries.org.

09/21/2020

Honoring the late, great

09/02/2020

Interesting piece from Our Daily Planet - did you know and are connected? Read on.

Five years ago a report from Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law warned that rising temperatures from global warming would strain the already overburdened U.S. correctional system and imperil the health of inmates and penal employees alike. In California these past several we...

07/22/2020

And in other pipeline news, this analysis of the demise or delay of several major pipeline projects in recent weeks, including the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Keystone XL Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline, by Yale Environment 360 is well worth a read. Even in these difficult times, there are still victories to celebrate!

The demise or delay of several major oil and gas pipelines in recent weeks, including the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, demonstrate how the Trump administration’s zeal for fossil fuel projects and flaunting of environmental laws has backfired and handed key victories to environmentalists.

07/22/2020

Lots of exciting pipeline news in recent days!

First, this great news from our friends at the Center for Constitutional Rights regarding their representation of several landowners who sued the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP) for expropriating their land. Although the state district court had found in their favor, it essentially let BBP chalk this up to just another cost of doing business, as it only awarded the landowners $75 for the trespass.

However, the Third Circuit Court of Appeal for Louisiana ruled that the landowners were entitled to $10,000 each plus attorney's fees, sending a strong message to BBP that it does not have "the unrestrained ability to decide whether another citizen's property rights can be restricted." The court noted that "BBP's conduct clearly shows no fear of the consequences of trampling on property owners' constitutionally protected due process rights."

Read the full story on CCR's website. Kudos to our friends at Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and Healthy Gulf for their work on this as well.

Landowners Awarded $10,000 Each Plus Attorneys Fees July 16, 2020, Lake Charles, LA – Today, the Third Circuit Court of Appeal for the State of Louisiana ruled that the Bayou Bridge Pipeline Company (

06/15/2020

Big win for today, rules that prevents workplace discrimination!

Federal civil rights law protects gay, le***an and transgender workers, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.