Climate Defense Project’s work to promote the climate necessity defense is featured in Jeremy Brecher’s article in Common Dreams about the importance of climate legal activism. Brecher quotes CDP co-founder Ted Hamilton:
Ted Hamilton of the Climate Defense Project notes that a criminal defense cannot be based solely “a constitutional right to a safe climate or on a public trust claim.” These constitutional arguments work best as supplements to the main necessity argument. But constitutional claims can illustrate “the failure of legal alternatives” — because the government is not only failing to address the climate crisis, but is “violating its own duties and citizens’ rights through its failure.” And constitutional arguments can highlight the harm protestors are targeting — because that harm constitutes “a violation of constitutional rights and the public trust.”
