Summary
In 2018, the NGO “Toledoans for Safe Water” campaigned to get a Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) recognizing rights of Lake Erie on the ballot. The proposed bill was drafted with the help of lawyers from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and declared that “Lake Erie, and the Lake Erie watershed, possess the right to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.” The measure passed in 2019, and the LEBOR was added to the municipal charter – becoming the first law in the US to recognize a specific ecosystem’s rights. However, the law was struck down by a federal judge in 2020.
In July 2019, the Ohio State legislature passed a budget bill that prohibited communities from enacting “rights of nature” laws after Toledo residents overwhelmingly voted for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights. The bill established that “nature… does not have standing to participate in or bring an action in any court.” In 2020, the State doubled down, passing a so-called “preemption law” in response to the city of Athens and Cuyahoga County (where Cleveland is located) passing laws banning single-use plastic bags.
Today, citizens of Ohio are pushing back. Residents of Columbus, Ohio are seeking to overturn this undemocratic process within their city. On May 15th 2025 they submitted a city charter amendment petition to the city, seeking to ask voters on the November 2027 ballot if they will reject state preemption and reaffirm the right to make decisions locally. The proposed amendment states that “the principle and practice of home rule and local self-government in Ohio, as established in 1912, has been increasingly infringed upon and eroded by state legislature overreach via the practice of state preemption,” including by preventing residents from legislating on important community issues such as “minimum wage protections, gun laws, oil and gas bans, rent control protections, knife laws, plastic bag bans, rights of nature, flavored tobacco bans, pesticide use, red-light camera use, telecommunication installations, natural gas hookup bans, puppy mill bans, paid leave, and many others.”
Involved Organizations
Related Initiatives
Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2025. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor.https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/lake-erie-bill-of-rights/.
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