Inside Climate News: Does Nature Have Rights?

September 19, 2021

CDER Senior Legal Counsel Thomas Linzey has worked with attorneys who filed a lawsuit this summer in the White Earth Nation Tribal Court in Minnesota to stop construction of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline, asserting the legal rights of manoomin, or wild rice. The suit was the first rights of nature claim ever filed in a tribal court. This journey and the latest developments of this lawsuit are the focal points of an article in Inside Climate News, “Does Nature Have Rights? A Burgeoning Legal Movement Says Rivers, Forests and Wildlife Have Standing, Too”.

Katie Surma introduces the reader to our associate, Chuck O’Neal as well, and states:

“In the United States, rights of nature laws have taken root in more than 30 localities across the country, in, among other states, Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. Florida, home to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a leading Trump supporter, has become an unlikely epicenter, while other Florida cities like Titusville, Venice, Fort Myers, Naples and other jurisdictions are in varying stages of developing their own rights of nature ordinances, following Orange County’s example” (Surma, 2021).”

With the work in Minnesota tribal courts also moving to the federal court system as well, the goals of organizers and tangible protection of our natural resources will become a closer reality. The work has not been done yet, so the White Earth Nation Tribal Band, Thomas Linzey, and other activists will have plenty of opportunities to keep the judicial system focused on protecting our water systems. To learn more about the history of the rights of nature at large and the work in Minnesota, please read the article here.