Great Lakes Law

The Dulcepamba River gets its day in court - rights of nature and Constitutional law in Ecuador

The following guest post is by Great Lakes Environmental Law Center student fellow Shannon Nelson. Shannon is a University of Michigan Law School student and graduate of Wesleyan University. Prior to law school, she was the operations manager for Floating Doctors in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Shannon has led our project in Ecuador, working with local advocates and attorneys to protect the Dulcepamba River and support the people most affected by its destruction. In 2008,... Read more →

Voters Approve Lake Erie Bill of Rights, Polluters Challenge it in Court

On February 26, 2019, voters in Toledo, Ohio overwhelmingly passed the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, fully stated- ESTABLISHING A BILL OF RIGHTS FOR LAKE ERIE, WHICH PROHIBITS ACTIVITIES AND PROJECTS THAT WOULD VIOLATE THE BILL OF RIGHTS We the people of the City of Toledo declare that Lake Erie and the Lake Erie watershed comprise an ecosystem upon which millions of people and countless species depend for health, drinking water and survival. We further... Read more →

Federal appeals court allows Flint residents’ claims against state officials for violation of the constitutional right to bodily integrity

In a win for Flint residents and environmental justice, the federal Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the actions of government – notably MDEQ officials and state-appointed emergency managers – “shocked the conscience” and may violate citizens’ right to bodily integrity as guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. The court’s decision - Guertin v. Michigan, 912 F. 3d 907 (6th Cir. 2019) - reasons that water... Read more →

Equal Justice Works Fellow Erin Mette joins the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center to focus on children’s health in Detroit and Flint

Equal Justice Works has awarded recent Wayne Law graduate (and former GLELC student fellow) Erin Mette a two-year fellowship to work with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center on urban children’s health. Erin’s project will focus on protecting children in Detroit and Flint from home-based environmental health hazards. As a staff attorney with GLELC, Erin will provide legal counseling and representation to affected families and work for policies that address the root causes of this... Read more →

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment presents 16 Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment in final report to UN Human Rights Council

Professor John Knox, a leading expert on international environmental and human rights law, is scheduled to present his final reports as Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment to the United Nations Human Rights Council this week. In July 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Professor Knox to a three-year mandate as its first Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy... Read more →

Environmental Justice in Practice - national conference at Wayne Law

Wayne Law is hosting a national conference on environmental justice Friday January 26, 2018. Environmental Justice in Practice features a superb line-up of advocates, attorneys, community leaders, organizers, and policy-makers. Panels will cover energy and climate justice, water access and affordability, urban air quality, and careers in environmental justice. The conference is co-sponsored by Wayne Law's Transnational Environmental Law Clinic and Environmental Law Society, CURES at Wayne State, the University of Chicago Law School's Abrams... Read more →

Detroit Enacts New Ordinance to Protect Residents From Dust Pollution

Guest post by Great Lakes Environmental Law Center staff attorney Nick Leonard. On a summer day in July of 2013, a dangerous dark cloud of dust blew along the Detroit River between Windsor, Canada and Detroit. Video captured by an individual showed several people standing along the riverfront transfixed by the dust cloud as it completely obscured their view of the Ambassador Bridge, a normally omnipresent visual landmark for Detroit and Windsor residents alike. The... Read more →

Federal appeals court opens the door to Constitutional claims against state officials for dangerous and inaccessible drinking water in Flint

A federal appeals court has allowed two lawsuits by Flint residents against state officials for Constitutional violations arising from the Flint water crisis to go forward, giving victims a big legal win with even bigger implications. In Boler v. Earley and Mays v. Snyder, 865 F.3d 391 (6th Cir. 2017), cert. denied, 583 U.S. __ (2018), the court held that alleged violations of substantive due process and equal protection could be brought in federal court... Read more →

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Environmental Prophet

I was inspired and challenged by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ public lecture this week at the University of Detroit Mercy. Based on his most recent book Between the World and Me, winner of the 2015 National Book Award, Coates presented an efficient and highly effective argument that America is based on a false idea of race and built on the plunder of black bodies. Implicit in this living lie and ongoing injustice is “the Dream” – Coates’... Read more →

Flint residents reach settlement with state to replace lead pipes within three years

Flint residents and public interest organizations have entered a settlement agreement with the state to replace lead pipes within 3 years and provide additional testing and monitoring of drinking water. This resolves the federal Safe Drinking Water Act citizen suit, Concerned Pastors for Social Action v. Khouri, and the ongoing fight over the court-ordered bottled water delivery in Flint. The court has approved the settlement agreement and will retain jurisdiction to ensure compliance. The Natural... Read more →

The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through the Lens of Flint – Report of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission has just released a major report, The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through the Lens of Flint. Oday Salim, Senior Attorney at the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, testified before the Commission and authored the following guest post on the Commission’s report. The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through the Lens of Flint is not just another recycled indictment of government officials with all the accompanying horrid details of the... Read more →

A Changing Environment in China: The Ripe Opportunity for Environmental Law Clinics to Increase Public Participation and to Shape Law and Policy

My colleague Nick Schroeck has just published an exciting article exploring new opportunities for environmental law clinics in China. Nick directs Wayne Law's Transnational Environmental Law Clinic and is Executive Director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. In the fall of 2014, Nick traveled to Xi'an China where he taught international environmental law at the Northwest University of Politics & Law as part of a faculty exchange program. While Nick was teaching at NWUPL,... Read more →

Federal court orders the state to deliver bottled water and inform residents about lead contamination in Flint’s drinking water

“In modern society, when we turn on a faucet, we expect safe drinking water to flow out. As the evidence shows, that is no longer the case in Flint. The Flint water crisis has in effect turned back the clock to a time when people traveled to central water sources to fill their buckets and carry the water home.” – U.S. District Court Judge David M. Lawson, Opinion and Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary... Read more →