The Environmental Justice Committee (EJC) of the National Lawyer's Guild (NLG) is a network of attorneys, law students, legal workers, and activists dedicated to providing assistance to impoverished communities and communities of color which are exposed to the disproportionate impacts of environmental hazards while at the same time denied access to environmental benefits.
The EJC recognizes the general failure of mainstream environmental law and policy bodies in meaningfully addressing the unique environmental and legal challenges facing many impoverished communities and communities of color. Such community challenges often include disproportionate exposure to facilities which pose significant public health and safety risks and continued siting of hazardous facilities in such communities. The EJC is committed to challenging the inadequate responses of governmental bodies and mainstream environmental organizations in addressing existing environmental, public health and safety concerns in environmental justice communities, including lax responses to the cleanup of hazardous military, industrial, and natural disaster sites.
The EJC also focuses on the interplay between infringement on civil liberties and environmentalism, including governmental attacks on the rights of environmental and animal rights activists.
Members of the EJC are currently engaged in structuring several projects to connect law students, legal workers, and attorneys in directly assisting environmental justice communities with legal representation, lobbying, research, organizing, education and direct community action.Membership is open to all members of the NLG community. There will be no arbitrary exclusion from membership on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender presentation or identity, sexual orientation, disability or age.
Barbara Dudley-Portland State University professor, Former Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, former President of the National Lawyers Guild, and current member of the EJC speaking on the Green Scare
