The North East Environmental Justice Attorney Group met on Tuesday, June 26, to discuss critical civil rights and environmental issues facing poor and minority communities, including climate change, cumulative polluting impacts, American Indian rights, and how to increase the diversity of environmental bar. These issues, in the view of many during the meeting, were a challenge before the current Trump administration. Now, the challenges have increased due to the overall rollback of civil rights and environmental protections.
The meeting, hosted by the Eastern Environmental Law Center, was facilitated by Dr. Nicky Sheats, Director for the Center for Urban Environment at the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy of Thomas Edison State College. Attendees included attorneys from NY Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), Earthjustice, Yale Law School’s Environmental Justice Clinic, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, NY Environmental Law Justice and Project and the National Lawyers Guild.