Below is a list of the clinic's current and past casework.
Clinic Updates
Court Declares that EPA Failed To Protect Civil Rights
On April 2, 2018, a federal court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated the law by waiting a decade or more to investigate civil rights complaints filed by community groups across the country. The decision comes after a lawsuit, litigated by students from the Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law School and Earthjustice, challenged EPA’s failure to protect civil rights in the environmental context. Five communities were plaintiffs in the litigation, arguing that EPA had failed to complete civil rights investigations within 180 days as required by law.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Statement Regarding EPA Decision on Uniontown, Alabama
On Friday, March 16, 2018, The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a statement expressing deep concern over the Environmental Protection Agency's dismissal of complaints filed by residents of Uniontown, AL against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). The complaints alleged that ADEM's permitting of an expansion of the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown adversely and disparately impacted African American residents in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Esther Calhoun, Uniontown resident and president of Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice, and Marianne Engelman-Lado, the Environmental Justice Clinic's supervising attorney, both testified before the Commission during its investigation into environmental justice and civil rights enforcement. The Commission, after conducting its own fact-finding, concluded that the Landfill adversely impacted the surrounding community. See the Commission's statement below.
AL Residents Denounce EPA for Closing Civil Rights Investigations
Residents of Uniontown, Alabama are condemning the decision of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to close two civil rights complaints filed against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). The complaints allege that ADEM racially discriminated by permitting a massive landfill in an overwhelmingly black community, and further failed to protect Uniontown residents from unlawful intimidation in the wake of their initial civil rights claim. Yale’s Environmental Justice Clinic represents residents in both complaints, the first of which was filed in 2013.
EJC Client Reacts to NMED Policies
On February 23, NMED released its Public Participation and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) policies that outline the agency's plans to include New Mexican communities in the process for permitting industrial facilities. Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD) and other community groups raised serious concerns about the New Mexico Environment Department's (NMED) failure to include community voices before releasing new policies intended to comply with civil rights laws. Read more on the story.
The Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale congratulates Reverend Ronald C. Smith
The Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale congratulates Reverend Ronald C. Smith for being selected as one of the Center for American Progress’ 10 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2018! In 2003, Reverend Smith’s mother and other residents of the historic Ashurst Bar/Smith community in Alabama, filed a civil rights complaint, which EPA accepted for investigation. The complaint languished at EPA, but the Smith family persevered. Reverend Smith, an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and the pastor of Wayman Chapel AME Church in Union Springs, Alabama, took up the fight for a safe and healthy community. The EJ Clinic, together with Earthjustice and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., represents the Ashurst Bar/Smith Community Organization in their struggle for environmental justice. Check out Reverend Smith and the other inspirational leaders.
Environmental Justice Clinic Fights to End Discriminatory Dentistry Policies
On December 6, 2017, the Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law School sent a letter on behalf of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ) urging the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) to rescind its policy requiring dentists to use mercury-based dental amalgam in the molar fillings of Medicaid patients. The letter sent to DSS can be found here. Read more about the story.
On November 22, the Environmental Justice Clinic filed administrative comments with the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission on behalf of ten local waterkeepers, the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH), the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), and two attorneys at the Julius L. Chambers Center for Civil Rights. The comments addressed a significant regulatory gap in North Carolina’s regulation of animal feeding operations: the “permitting by regulation” of dry litter poultry facilities. Under this system, dry litter poultry facilities—where manure is mixed with bedding and other dry material for disposal—are not required to obtain coverage under a state permit. They can open and operate without telling the state agency anything about their environmental management practices or public health impacts.
Those impacts can be severe. In addition to high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, dry litter contains trace elements such as copper and zinc, pesticide residues, antibiotics, and endocrine disruptors. A total of 96 waterways in North Carolina have been listed as impaired due to excess copper or zinc levels. North Carolina is currently conducting a full review of its environmental rules. The Environmental Justice Clinic filed comments on the subject of dry litter as part of its representation of low-income communities of color that suffer from the public health effects of animal operations in North Carolina. For further information, please contact Henry Weaver or Brittany Williams
Yale Law Clinic and Communities Call for Action on Environmental Injustice
On October 23, 2017, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Congressman Raul Ruiz (D-CA36) introduced the Environmental Justice Act of 2017, a bill to address racial and economic disparities in exposure to pollution and access to fresh air and clean water. The bill calls on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure access to clean air and clean water without regard to race or national origin, and would enshrine policies to protect vulnerable communities into law.
Video: Environmental Injustice in Uniontown, Alabama
In Uniontown, residents worry that they are being poisoned by the air they breathe. NowThis Politics joined Senator Cory Booker to report on the environmental justice issues the community is facing in Uniontown, Alabama. The clinic represents community members in two complaints against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). In 2013, residents of Uniontown and others filed a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against ADEM alleging that ADEM’s approval of Arrowhead Landfill's permit modification and permit reissuance in 2011 and 2012 had a racially disparate impact on the basis of race, was not sufficiently protective of the health and welfare of the community and discriminated on the basis of race. Community members also filed a second complaint against ADEM for violating the prohibition against intimidation in Title VI and EPA regulations.
A Legacy of Environmental Racism
Summary: In 2000, residents of the Charlton-Pollard neighborhood in Beaumont, Texas filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), alleging that the state’s approval of the refinery’s expansion discriminated on the basis of race. The clinic represents community members in their administrative case before the EPA and, also, litigation against the federal agency for failing to respond to the complaint in a timely way.
Environmental Justice Tour of Fair Haven, Connecticut
Summary: On April 7, 2017, a group of nine students from the Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law School, along with Professor Marianne Engelman-Lado, participated in a tour of Fair Haven, CT. The tour was led by Lee Cruz of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. We visited several sites in Fair Haven, developing an understanding for the EJ history and issues in the area, as well as an appreciation for the resilience, beauty, and optimism of the community.
EPA Slams Door to Justice on Historic Black Community
Summary: EPA slams the door to racial justice in a recent decision against the historic black community—Ashurst Bar/Smith.
Community Demands justice after 15 year delay
After years of violating legal requirements for acting on civil rights complaints, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) settled a longstanding race discrimination complaint involving the expansion of a Beaumont refinery near a largely African American community. The clinic was involved in representing the plaintiffs in the case.