Jake Gladstone, Montana's Blackfeet Troubadour, in the Badger-Two Medicine area in northwest Montana.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

Badger-Two Medicine

Map of the United States. Pink dot on Badger-Two Medicine.
The Cheswick Generating Station from in Springdale, PA in 2010.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

Mercury & Air Toxics Standards

Map of the United States.
Farmworkers harvest ferns in Pierson, FL.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

Agricultural Worker Protections

Map of the United States.
A turtle surfaces offshore of Kahekili Beach Park, Maui, Hawaii.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

Clean Water Case of the Century

Map of the United States.
A sockeye salmon in Little Redfish Lake Creek. Oncorhynchus nerka. Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

Wild Salmon

Map of the United States. Pink dot on Washington.
A person stands at the base of an old-growth tree, touching the trunk in the Tongass National Forest, on Prince of Wales Island.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

Tongass National Forest

Map of the United States. Yellow dot on the Tongass in Alaska.
Bears Ears National Monument - Indian Creek

50 Landmark Legal Cases

National Monuments

Map of the United States. Yellow dot on Itah.
Water protectors at Oceti Sakowin camp.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

Dakota Access Pipeline

Map of the United States. Pink dot on the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Bonnie Wirtz with son in a field in rural Minnesota.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

Chlorpyrifos Ban

Map of the United States.
A purple gallinule carefully walks on lily pads in the Everglades in Florida.

50 Landmark Legal Cases

The Everglades

Map of the United States. Yellow dot on the Everglades in Florida.

Sep 15, 2021

For 50 years, Earthjustice has fought thousands of legal cases, representing all our clients free of charge — because the earth needs a good lawyer.

See 50 of our proudest accomplishments that truly changed life for people and wildlife and set the stage for the world we live in now and into the future.

These cases encompass:

3
Oceans
4
Countries
States

Secure clean water and clean air as a right for all

1978–today · Nationwide

Right to Breathe

Relentlessly used the Clean Air Act to close loopholes and force more protective air pollution safeguards across multiple industries.

1997–today · Nationwide

Mercury & Air Toxics Standards

Twenty years of litigation led to the first-ever clean air protections against the nation's dirtiest polluters — coal-fired power plants.

2000–today · Nationwide

National Air Quality Standards

Through repeated lawsuits, pushed the U.S. EPA to update and strengthen national smog standards, making the air cleaner for all.

2006–today · Nationwide

Coal Ash

A hard-fought lawsuit brought on behalf of 10 environmental and public health groups and the Moapa Band of Paiutes resulted in the first-ever federal regulations for toxic coal ash.

2017–today · Wisconsin

Back Forty Mine

Protected Menominee Tribal lands and the Great Lakes, after a legal fight successfully resulted in the mine developer relinquishing its permits.

Orthographic map centered on Southeast Asia.

2019 · Indonesia

Jakarta Air Pollution

Worked with our partner the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law on a citizen suit to compel government agencies to bring Jakarta into compliance with ambient pollution limits.

2020 · Nationwide

Clean Water Case of the Century

Fought a decades-long legal battle involving a Maui wastewater treatment plant all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the fate of the nation's waters hung in the balance. Clean water prevailed.

2020 · California

Phillips 66 Refinery

The law and facts were so clear that Philips 66 settled before we even filed suit and committed to reduce air pollution that has contaminated communities for years.

2021 · Nationwide

Waters of the U.S.

Millions of streams and wetlands regained legal protections, after a lawsuit successfully challenged a disastrous Trump-era rule that allowed industries to dump pollutants into bodies of water.

More on these Cases

Stop the mass extinction of species

1977–today · Nationwide

Endangered Species

From the Pacific Ocean to mountains of Montana, used the Endangered Species Act to protect hundreds of imperiled plants and animals — including the palila, an endangered bird found only on Mauna Kea, in one of the earliest uses of this visionary law.

1987–today · Pacific Northwest

Old-growth Forests

Successfully defended the Northwest Forest Plan — the first broadscale ecosystem management approach to treat forests as complex, interdependent systems — from relentless attacks by logging interests.

1994–today · Washington

Wild Salmon

Fighting to restore the lower Snake River and remove four outdated dams that are driving wild salmon to extinction.

Orthographic map centered on the Pacific Ocean.

2011–today · Gulf of Mexico

Sea Turtles

Brought a series of successful court actions to ensure enforcement of legally required safeguards for endangered sea turtles.

2017–today · California

Mojave Trails National Monument

Prevented a private company from draining and selling groundwater from an aquifer that nourishes desert species and migratory birds.

Orthographic map centered on the Atlantic Circle.

2020 · Atlantic Ocean

Marine Mammals & Seismic Airguns

Protected one of Earth's rarest ocean creatures — the North Atlantic right whale — and many marine species, after years of litigation resulted in fossil fuel companies abandoning seismic airgun permits.

More on these Cases

Power everything with 100% clean energy

2007 · Florida

Glades Coal to Solar

Made way for the world's then-largest solar facility to be built where, two years earlier, we blocked the nation’s largest proposed coal plant.

2012 · Kentucky

Big Sandy Coal Plant

In a watershed victory, one of the 50 dirtiest power plants in America retired after a successful lawsuit — paving the way for energy efficiency and clean energy.

2015 · Maryland

Community Solar

Fighting for forward-thinking policies to expand access to renewable energy, including an innovative community solar program in Maryland that opens the benefits of solar to communities of all income levels.

2016 · Nevada

Reviving Rooftop Solar

Helped bring back Nevada's solar industry by successfully challenging discriminatory rate hikes for solar customers.

2017 · California

Electric Buses

In a groundbreaking-first for the nation, successfully pushed Los Angeles Metro to invest in a full fleet of zero-emission electric buses — a win for the climate and our lungs.

2021 · California

World Logistics Center

Historic settlement to clean-up one of the world’s largest warehouses resulted in $47 million investment in electric trucks, charging infrastructure, solar, and more.

More on these Cases

End extraction and burning of fossil fuels

1976 · Utah

Kaiparowits Plateau

Legal pressure forced the withdrawal of plans to build a goliath coal mine and power plant in an irreplaceable area that would eventually be designated as part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Orthographic map centered on the Arctic Circle.

1980s–today · Arctic

Arctic Ocean

Relentlessly fought to protect the Arctic from drilling. Despite numerous attempts by industry, there is no offshore oil and gas drilling today in America's Arctic Ocean.

Orthographic map centered on North America.

2008 · Montana + Alberta

Flathead River Valley

Saved one of the most wild, beautiful landscapes remaining in North America — Montana’s Flathead River and the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park — from dirty energy development.

2010–today · Pacific Northwest

Fossil Fuel Export Terminals

Prevented the Pacific Northwest from being turned into a hub of fossil fuel transport and export terminals.

2011–2014 · New York

Right to Ban Fracking

Successfully upheld the Town of Dryden's right to stop the oil and gas industry from fracking within town limits, setting the stage for a statewide ban on fracking.

2013–2020 · Montana

Badger-Two Medicine

Succeeded in a decades-long fight to prevent oil and gas drilling on illegally leased lands that are sacred to the Blackfeet Nation and critical for wildlife habitat.

2016–2022 · North Dakota

Dakota Access Pipeline

Represented the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in its years-long legal fight to protect its homeland from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Orthographic map centered on Africa.

2019 · South Africa

Coal in South Africa

Partnered with Centre for Environmental Rights, which secured a court victory shutting down the proposed Khanyisa coal-fired power plant.

2019 · Indiana

Coal- and Gas-fired Power Plants

Successfully challenged a proposed billion-dollar gas-fired plant that would have locked consumers into fossil fuel infrastructure for the next 40 years.

More on these Cases

Build a justice-centered environmental movement

1989 · Louisiana

Uranium Plant

In the first time a federal agency made environmental justice a basis for its decision, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied a permit to build a uranium enrichment plant in Homer, La., following legal pressure.

1989–2018 · Hawaiʻi

Makua Valley

One of Hawaiʻi's spiritual havens is healing after decades of being bombed and shelled.

1998–today · Hawaiʻi

Restore Stream Flow

Hawaiian streams are flowing again, after long-running legal fights by local and Native Hawaiian communities established the precedent that water is a public trust, not private property.

Orthographic map centered on the Arctic Circle.

2005 · Arctic

Climate Change & Human Rights

Supported the Inuit Circumpolar Conference in the development of the first-ever petition linking climate change and human rights — the impetus for the now-global recognition that climate change is a fundamental human rights issue.

2014 · Nationwide

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act

Fighting alongside communities across the country to enforce the law that forbids agencies that receive federal funding from discriminating based on race.

2017 · Nationwide

Chemical Disaster Rule

Protecting the 177 million people, schoolchildren, workers, and emergency first-responders who live and work near chemical facilities, with commonsense safeguards against chemical disasters.

2019 · Arizona

Rosemont Mine

A company tried to bend the rules to dig a mile-wide copper mine on sacred lands, until a lawsuit brought by the Tohono O’odham Nation, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and Hopi Tribe blocked the plan.

More on these Cases

Remove toxic exposure from our lives

2006–2020 · Nationwide

Agricultural Worker Protections

Joined farmworker, labor, and environmental groups to compel the U.S. EPA to finally strengthen pesticide protections for people who grow and harvest the nation's food.

2007–2021 · Nationwide

Chlorpyrifos Ban

Under a court-ordered deadline, the U.S. EPA finally banned all food uses of the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos that is widely used in U.S. agriculture.

2008–today · Nationwide

Toxic Substances Control Act

U.S. EPA must now consider the full range of ways that people may be exposed to harmful chemicals, following a successful lawsuit.

2011–2016 · West Virginia

Mountaintop Removal Mining

Defended the historic veto of the massive Spruce No. 1 Mine, which would have used a mining method that brings devastating health consequences to neighboring communities.

2017–today · Nationwide

PFAS “Forever Chemicals”

Working to stop contamination of this class of 5,000 toxic chemicals that don’t break down and can remain in drinking water and our bodies for decades.

2019–today · Louisiana

Petrochemicals

Representing residents of St. James Parish — part of “Cancer Alley” — who are fighting a petrochemical complex that would double toxic air emissions and more than triple the levels of cancer-causing chemicals.

More on these Cases

Safeguard our public lands and waters

1972 · California

Mineral King

To preserve the spectacular Sierra Nevada valley called Mineral King from being developed into a large ski resort, a small band of lawyers filed suit. The case confirmed the right of citizens to take environmental disputes to court.

1977–today · Alaska

Tongass National Forest

Successfully won multiple legal battles to protect the ancient trees and abundant wildlife of “America's Climate Forest” from old-growth logging and destructive road construction.

1988–today · Florida

The Everglades & Florida's Waterways

Negotiated a landmark settlement that required significant Everglades restoration measures and court-enforced pollution limits.

1996 · Montana

Yellowstone Mining

Averted a potential disaster at one of the world's treasures — Yellowstone National Park — when plans for industrial gold mining were abandoned in the face of legal and national pressure.

1998–today · Washington, D.C.

Anacostia River

The river is coming back to life due to sustained community pressure and Earthjustice litigation, requiring the U.S. EPA to set strong pollution limits and the creation of one of the most effective sewage overflow control programs in the nation.

1999–today · Nationwide

Roadless Rule

Won in court after court to defend the Roadless Rule, which protects roughly a third of our national forests from clear-cuts.

2001–today · Nationwide

National Monuments

Defended national monuments across the country, from the timber industry during the Bush administration, to the largest federal land rollback during the Trump-era.

More on these Cases

50 years of going to court for the future of the planet. When the first Earthjustice attorneys walked into a courtroom in 1971, many of our nation’s environmental laws were brand new. The earth needed a good lawyer. Today, after 50 years and hundreds of victories for the earth, we are taking on the most pressing environmental challenges of our time, with more than 170 attorneys and 14 offices around the country.

Photo credits: Jack Gladstone at Badger-Two Medicine. (Rebecca Drobis for Earthjustice) · Coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania. (Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice) · Sockeye salmon at Little Redfish Lake, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Id. (Neil Ever Osborne / Save Our Wild Salmon / iLCP) · Tongass National Forest. (Colin Arisman) · Sacred Stone Camp. (Lucas Zhao / CC BY-NC 2.0) · Bears Ears National Monument. (Bob Wick / BLM) · Rooftop solar supporters in Nevada. (John Locher / AP) · Bonnie Wirtz and her son, outside of Melrose, Minn. (Ackerman + Gruber for Earthjustice) · Agricultural worker in a Florida fernery. (Dave Getszchman for Earthjustice) · Sea turtle at Lahaina Beach, Maui. (Don Mcleish) · Barrel wave. (Getty Images) · Purple gallinule in Everglades National Park. (Diana Robinson / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)