Climate Defense Project April 8, 2019 Contact: Kelsey Skaggs, (510) 883-3118; info@climatedefenseproject.org Today the Washington Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the conviction of climate activist Ken Ward and sent his case back to the lower court for a third trial because Ward was denied his Sixth Amendment right to present the necessity defense to a...
Climate Defense Project co-founders Alice Cherry, Ted Hamilton, and Kelsey Skaggs have an op-ed in The Hill on the importance of civil disobedience to the climate justice movement. The article explains how grassroots direct action is necessary for changing policy and ensuring a just transition, and emphasizes the need for movement legal support like that provided by...
CDP Staff Attorney Alice Cherry moderated and participated in a panel on the climate necessity defense — along with Valve Turner Emily Johnston, law professor Lance Long, and Marla Marcum of the Climate Disobedience Center — at the 2019 Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, held at the University of Oregon School of Law. The title...
Check out CDP’s Kelsey Skaggs in conversation with podcast host, author, and legal scholar Grace Nosek. In this episode of Planet Potluck, a climate change-themed podcast, Kelsey and Grace discuss climate litigation, the fossil fuel industry, climate civil disobedience, and the community that can be found in resistance movements. Learn more about the podcast here.
CDP staff attorney Ted Hamilton and Stetson University College of Law professor Lance N. Long have published the first law review article on the climate necessity defense: The Climate Necessity Defense: Proof and Judicial Error in Climate Protest Cases. The article (which you can download directly by visiting the link) reviews the history of the...
CDP co-founders Kelsey Skaggs and Alice Cherry are featured in the upcoming film Necessity: Oil, Water, and Climate Resistance. Directed by Jan Haaken and Samantha Praus, this feature-length documentary tells the story of climate activists and attorneys as they work to resist pipelines carrying tar sands oil—the most polluting fuel on the planet—from Canada into the United...
Climate Defense Project co-founder and Executive Director Kelsey Skaggs has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of trailblazers and risk-takers. Recognized for her work at CDP, Kelsey joins a class of other luminaries in law and policy. Check out the honor here.
CDP's Alice Cherry interprets recent climate necessity outcomes in the context of the midterm elections and reaffirms the value of protest.
CDP staff attorneys Alice Cherry and Ted Hamilton spoke to law students at Harvard Law School’s Pro Bono week about the need for movement lawyers fighting for climate justice and their experience starting a non-profit out of law school. Alice and Ted emphasized the need to proactively use the legal system to advance activist goals...
Our clients’ recent victory in Minnesota has garnered significant media attention. A Democracy Now! segment features CDP’s Kelsey Skaggs with two of the valve turners and Dr. James Hansen. Click here for part two. Here is a piece in The Nation by Wen Stephenson examining the context of the trial, and an opinion piece by Bill McKibben on the...
