Summary
In 2013, the civil action group Protect Youngstown submitted the first of nine charter amendments recognizing rights of nature. The board of elections struck down the ballot initiative many times. In 2017, the group attempted two different charter amendments for November, but they were each kept off the ballot by a Ohio Supreme Court decision. The group also made two last attempts in 2018 after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the election board overstepped its authority by rejecting the initiative and must place the proposal back on the primary election ballot. However, the county was two weeks into early voting and over 1,000 absentee ballots were already submitted, which meant printing new ballot pages. The initiative ultimately did not pass.
Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2026. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/youngstown-community-bill-of-rights/.
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