About Us

How We Work

Earthjustice has a legal staff of more than 50 in eight offices around the country, also a policy department in Washington, DC, an international program based in Oakland, and a communications team, also in Oakland, where the fundraising and administrative offices reside as well. You can read about their activities here.

Although there have been laws to protect air, water, and other resources for centuries, the era of modern environmental law began in the mid-1960s when a federal appeals court in New York ruled that citizens with no financial stake in the outcome of a power plant siting decision could nevertheless participate in the process and were entitled to bring their concerns before a court of law. That right, known as "standing to sue," was affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1972 in a case brought by a group of attorneys that would eventually form Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, now known as Earthjustice.

Starting at the end of 1969, a veritable deluge of new environmental statutes was passed and signed into law. By 1973, Congress had created the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Endangered Species Act. The United States now has some of the strongest and most comprehensive environmental regulations in the world. A description of these laws can be found under "The Laws We Use."

Congress assigned various government agencies the task of enforcing environmental laws. Agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service are responsible for ensuring we have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and that public lands and wildlife are protected.

Unfortunately, special interests pressure agencies to bend, if not break, the rules so profits from mining, logging, and other destructive activities can continue.

That's why Earthjustice uses federal and state environmental laws to protect the environment by taking government agencies to court for failing to enforce our nation's environmental laws, and corporations for breaking them. Earthjustice does this work on behalf of hundreds of community and environmental groups, providing legal services free of charge.

As a result of our activities along with other public-interest environmental law groups, environmental law has been a catalyst in bringing ecological values to the forefront of American life. Environmental litigation has been key to preserving threatened natural resources and protecting people's environmental rights. It has also played a strategic role in reforming the basis of our civil society. Lawsuits have protected millions of acres of wilderness and hundreds of endangered species. They have helped improve air and water quality and have forced polluting companies to clean up their discharges.

In fact, because lawsuits can be so effective, we have a team of policy experts in Washington, DC that work hand-in-hand with our attorneys to stop legislative backlash that often results from court decisions, and attacks to the very laws we use.

Earthjustice has expanded its work beyond the United States to the international level where we address human rights and trade and the environment. By working with other public interest groups around the globe, we are helping to develop strong environmental protection mechanisms throughout the world.