SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG
Read and share extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change
Advocates for Clean Water Fight For Environmental Justice as Pollution from California BigAg Creates Looming Central Valley "Flint" Crisis
Discharges from irrigated agriculture are the largest source of pollutionin California’s Central Valley. Water diversions for irrigated agriculture pose significant environmental challenges by diminishing instream flows and depleting aquifers throughout the state. Agricultural operations also pose a significant threat to water quality when nitrates, pesticides, sediment, pathogens, heavy metals, and salts run off fields into surface and groundwater. Farming right up to the riverbank by intensive farming operations has also led to the destruction of natural riparian zones through increased erosion, nutrient and sediment pollution, higher water temperatures, and degraded aquatic habitats.
Native Corn In Mexico Takes On Big Ag in Epic Environmental Justice Battle, Trailblazing A Path For Collective Actions
Despite native corn’s enormous importance, in 2009 the Mexican government began granting permits to multinational corporations to cultivate genetically modified corn. Environmental, health, and social justice advocates denounced the move. In 2013, a diverse coalition made up of fifty-three individuals and non-governmental organizations representing scientists, small farmers, beekeepers, consumers, and human rights activists banded together to file an innovative class action lawsuit to halt further genetically modified corn cultivation.
Youth v Gov: 11-year-old Levi knows Climate Change is no hoax; Sues Government for His Future
Levi and the other Juliana plaintiffs are going to see the lawsuit through to trial so that their voices may be heard in court. Climate change is one of the most pressing problems that the world faces, and Levi and his co-plaintiffs are determined to get their government to stop contributing to it and start stopping it.
TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund - Helping to Break the Cycle of Silence and Isolation
We’re fueled by all those who are with us, including you, and the conviction that every person deserves a workplace free from violence and where they are treated with dignity and respect. We know you share this conviction, and we need you. We can’t wait to fund your cases of sexual harassment in the workplace, for you to join our Network, and for you to tell us about your experience.
Impact Fund and allies say "YES" to Equality Act
Since 1994, federal lawmakers have repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to pass legislation prohibiting discrimination because of sexual orientation and—later—gender identity. The 116th Congress, with its historic numbers of women, people of color, and LGBTQ members, offers the best chance yet for the Equality Act to pass the House of Representatives. But what exactly would it do?
Sharing Food With The Homeless Is Not A Crime--It's A First Amendment Right
The Court recognized the significance of food sharing throughout history: “Like the flag, the significance of sharing meals with others dates back millennia.” The Court found that Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs was clearly engaged in more than a “picnic in a park” and had instead established “an intent to ‘express[] an idea through activity.’” The Court concluded that Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs is engaged in protected expression when it shares food outdoors in public parks.
Too Many, Too Much, and Too Young: Class Action Seeks To Protect Foster Kids From Dangerous Mistreatment With Psychotropic Drugs
On any given day, thousands of children in foster care across the country are administered psychotropic medications to address mental health and behavioral issues. Some of these children receive combinations of two, three, or more such medications at a time, often in elevated dosages. Some, like Joe, are even placed on antipsychotics, which led him to say, “I feel like I have knives in my eyes.”
A BIGGER VISION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE GRANTS
The Just Earth Fund, inspired by the urgency of our time, builds on our 25 years of successful grantmaking and brings new energy, hope, and funds to communities demanding justice.
Class Action Hero: Denied Mental Health Care, Patrice Makes A Stand For Human Rights
Although acutely suffering mental instability, I never lost the ability to discern what was just. I strongly believed an injustice was occurring that directly and negatively impacted the entirety of my life and those of countless others. I also believed that so long as these things went unchallenged myself and others would continue to suffer. Not only did I want to change what happens within the prisons, I also wanted to raise public awareness of mental illness in relation to solitary confinement – the criminalization of mental illness within the prison walls.
Kids Win Big In Yazzie Case: New Mexico Court Says State Must Address Systemic Discrimination
Like all parents, Wilhelmina Yazzie wants her children to have an education that gives them the opportunities they need to learn and thrive. But her 15-year-old son Xavier hasn’t been getting what he needs to be college and career ready because the state has been starving our public schools. Unfortunately, Wilhelmina’s son Xavier, like so many other students in New Mexico, has not had the benefit of the programming and resources he needs to thrive.
Psych Patients In Connecticut File Class Action For Civil Rights Violations
Karen testified: “When I was getting discharged from Connecticut Valley Hospital, there were money and staffing problems that delayed me from getting out. Hospital staff were worried that there wasn’t enough money to get me the staffing that would keep me safe.... On the Thursday I was supposed to be discharged, staff were telling me I would be back by the next Monday.”
Economic Justice: Low-Income Detroiters To Keep Their Homes
Cynthia was told she’d have to pay a flat fee of $5,000 to save her home. She folded, and her home will be offered up at an auction this fall. Cynthia is not alone. These obstacles, combined with the fact that few eligible homeowners know about the exemption, resulted in tens of thousands of low-income Detroiters losing their homes for inability to pay taxes they should’ve never been charged. This foreclosure crisis had a disproportionately devastating effect on African-American homeowners, who are often more likely to be foreclosed on than non-black homeowners.
Economic Justice For Los Angeles Bus Riders!
The case was a classic civil rights case involving poor minorities whose need for basic travel to jobs and for everyday life fell victim to the desire of public officials to serve rail riders from the better-off, mostly white suburbs and the lure of flashy new trains and ribbon-cutting at sparkling new train stations.
Don't Despair: Litigate! The Legal Community’s Response to the Family Separation Crisis & How You Can Take Action.
The response of civil and human rights advocates has been strategic litigation to remind those in power that they cannot do that, that there is a rule of law, and that it will be enforced.
Clean Water Project: Grant Application Process Now Open!
The Impact Fund is thrilled to announce that the application process for grants for strategic litigation under our Clean Water Projectis now open!
Jeff Sessions Just Drew a Line Between Parent & Child, but What About You?
Jeff Sessions stood behind a podium—the welcoming blue of the Pacific glittering behind him, a gentle breeze ruffling his hair—and vowed to separate children from their parents. Directing his words to families immigrating across the southern border of the United States, he said, “If you are smuggling a child then we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you.” Separating children from their parents—unless absolutely necessary as in the case of abuse—is an immoral act.
Impact Fund Launches Clean Water Project: Environmental Justice in the San Joaquin Valley
In East Porterville, Tomas Garcia and his family haul water to their home to use for showers, toilets, and dishes. Only bottled water is safe to drink. The stress of the situation strained Mr. Garcia’s high blood pressure and diabetes; others in his community had suicidal thoughts. In Seville, Rebecca Quintana and her family relied on costly bottled water to replace the tap water contaminated by a high level of nitrates until a new well could be installed. The lack of access to clean water takes its daily toll on communities like East Porterville and Seville across the San Joaquin Valley.
WE SAVED THE DESERT TORTOISE!
For the Native Americans, the presence of a waste dump was deeply violating on a cultural level. They had lived on the land since time immemorial and believed that Ward Valley was the pathway traveled by newly deceased souls to their sacred mountain, Avi, Kwa Ame. Finally, it was home to the sacred desert tortoise.
No Way Out: Class Action Seeks Integration of People with Disabilities in Utah
Over the last 4 years, staff from the Disability Law Center of Utah (DLC) have, under their federal authority, visited individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) living in private institutions, called intermediate care facilities (ICFs). The message was clear: People desperately wanted out.
Judge Orders California To Stop Using Dangerous Pesticides
The new environmental analysis gave the department free rein to spray 79 pesticides anywhere in the state, indefinitely, with no analysis of local health and environmental impacts of the chemical. It also allowed no voice for affected communities regarding treatments that would be carried out in their yards, at public parks and schools, on organic farms, and anywhere else the state deemed necessary. The pesticides to be used are known to cause cancer, birth defects, and neurological damage and to be deadly to bees, fish, and birds.