
Thomas Linzey, a contributing writer to Rural America In These Times, is the executive director and co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and serves as the organization’s chief legal counsel.
CELDF provides free and legal services to community-based groups and local governments working to protect their quality of life and natural environment. The organization also sponsors Democracy Schools, from which more than 3,000 citizens have graduated.

Rural America
Hey Liberal, You’re Late, but Welcome to the Local-Control Party

Rural America
No More Fairy Tales: Why the United States Needs a Whole New Operating System

Rural America
Can the Community Rights Movement Fix Capitalism?

Rural America
Pebble Mine: “One More Indicator That We Are Undoubtedly the Dumbest Species on the Planet”

Rural America
Community Rights: Because Climate Conferences Won’t Stop Climate Change

Rural America
Rigged: How Our Legal System Prevents Communities from Governing Themselves

Rural America
“We’ve Broken the Planet”: A Case for Liberation Ecology and the Rights of Nature

Rural America
Community Override: When State Legislatures Preempt Democracy

Rural America
Slaves In All But Name: Abolishing the Corporate State in Rural Communities

Rural America
Fracking Bans Are Teaching Americans That They Are Not as Free as They Think

Rural America
Citizens United, Democracy and the Two Paths that Lie Before Us

Rural America
Greasing the System: Why Corporate ‘Rights’ Matter

Rural America
The Myth of Community Rights: Self-Governance has a Corporate Ceiling

Rural America
Firing Big Green: Are National Environmental Groups Really Serving the People?

Rural America
The Spirit of 1773 and the Right to Local Self-Government