The Romero Institute is a nonprofit law and public policy center in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish language, Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the largest city and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, California, Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population ...

. The organization was formed by activists of the

Christic Institute The Christic Institute was a public interest law firm founded in 1980 by Daniel Sheehan, his wife Sara Nelson, and their partner, William J. Davis, a Jesuit priest, after the successful conclusion of their work on the ''Silkwood'' case. Based on ...

and is named after the

Archbishop of San Salvador The Archdiocese of San Salvador is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. Its archepiscopal see is the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, and the surrounding region. The current Archbishop o ...

Óscar Arnulfo Romero Oscar or Oskar is a masculine given name of English and Irish origin. Etymology The name is derived from two elements in Irish: the first, ''os'', means "deer"; the second element, ''car'', means "loving" or "friend", thus "deer-loving one" or "f ...

. The institute has three main projects: the

Lakota People The Lakota (; or ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux (from ), they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people, with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western D ...

's Law Project based in part in the Dakotas, The New Paradigm Institute and Greenpower, both based in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

History

Beginnings in the Christic Institute

The

was a public interest law firm founded in 1980 by Daniel Sheehan, his wife Sara Nelson, and their partner, William J. Davis, a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest. They had gained a win in the ''

Silkwood ''Silkwood'' is a 1983 American biographical drama film directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was adapted from the book ''Who Killed Karen Silkwood?'' by ''Ro ...

'' case and wanted to continue public interest law. Christic represented victims of the nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island. In 1985, they filed a civil suit for damages against KKK and

American Nazi Party The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American neo-Nazi Political parties in the United States, political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in 1959. In Rockwell's time, it was headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It was renamed the Natio ...

members who had killed civil rights demonstrators in the 1979 Greensboro Massacre. In litigation by the state in a criminal trial and the federal government under civil rights law, all defendants had been acquitted by

all-white juries Racial discrimination in jury selection is specifically prohibited by law in many jurisdictions throughout the world. In the United States, it has been defined through a series of judicial decisions. However, juries composed solely of one racial ...

. In addition, the Institute had accused local police and Federal agents of knowing of the potential for violent confrontation and failing to protect the marchers. The Institute defended Catholic workers providing sanctuary to Salvadoran refugees (American

Sanctuary Movement The Sanctuary movement was a religious and political campaign in the United States that began in the early 1980s to provide safe haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict. The movement was a response to federal immigration policies ...

). The institute was based in Washington, D.C., with offices in several other major U.S. cities. The Institute received funding from a nationwide network of grass-roots donors, as well as organizations like the

New World Foundation The New World Foundation is a left-wing foundation, based in New York. It supports organizations that work on behalf of civil rights and that seek to encourage participation of citizens in American democracy. It was founded in 1954 by Anita McCor ...

. In 1988, the Christic Institute was ordered to pay $955,000 in

attorneys fees Attorney's fee is a chiefly United States term for compensation for legal services performed by an attorney (lawyer or law firm) for a client, in or out of court. Fees may be an hourly, flat-rate or contingent fee. Recent studies suggest that wh ...

and $79,500 in

court costs Court costs (also called law costs in English procedure) are the costs of handling a case, which, depending on legal rules, may or may not include the costs of the various parties in a lawsuit in addition to the costs of the court itself. In the ...

as the result of a $24 million lawsuit that was deemed to be frivolous by the

United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (in case citations, S.D. Fla. or S.D. Fl.) is the federal United States district court with territorial jurisdiction over the southern part of the state of Florida. Appeals ...

. The ruling was subsequently upheld by the

United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (in case citations, 11th Cir.) is a federal appellate court over the following U.S. district courts: * Middle District of Alabama * Northern District of Alabama * Southern District ...

and the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

. In addition, the Institute lost its non-profit status, as the IRS ruled that its suit had been politically motivated. In the wake of this loss, Daniel Sheehan and Sara Nelson regrouped. In 1992, they became the leaders of the Christic Institute's successor organization, the Romero Institute.

Other projects

New Paradigm Institute

The New Paradigm Institute (NPI) was founded in 2023 by Daniel Sheehan and Sara Nelson as a subsidiary of the Romero Institute. Jim Garrison joined later that same year as the director of the Washington, D.C. office. On the heels of Danny Sheehan’s 40 years of UFO advocacy, dating back to the Carter administration, NPI was founded as a public policy and law citizen watchdog group to follow the progress of the UAP Disclosure Act (later passed into law as Subtitle C -

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA 2024) is a United States federal law which specifies the budget, expenditures, and policies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for fiscal year 2024. Background The National ...

(NDAA). The mission of the New Paradigm Institute is to inform the public of the true facts surrounding the UFO/ET phenomenon and to mobilize citizens to secure full and responsible disclosure of information held by the federal government and its private contractors about UFO technology and nonhuman intelligent visitors.

Lakota People's Law Project

Founded in 2004, the Lakota People's Law Project (LPLP) began as a group of Lakota grandmothers organizing around issues relating to the

Indian Child Welfare Act The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA, enacted November 8, 1978 and codified at Indian Child Welfare Act, (, )) is a United States Code, United States federal law that governs jurisdiction over the removal of Native Americans in the United ...

. The "Lakota Child Rescue Project" was created to assist in the return of Lakota children to families, tribes, and communities and expanded to include the creation of a tribal foster care program funded with direct Title IV-E of the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...

funds from the federal government. In 2016, the Lakota People's Law Project expanded its mission to include land and water issues during the controversial protests against the

Dakota Access Pipeline The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) or Bakken pipeline is a underground pipeline in the United States that has the ability to transport up to 750,000 barrels of light sweet crude oil per day. It begins in the shale oil fields of the Bakken For ...

on the

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota controls the Standing Rock Reservation (), which straddles the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakot ...

Indian Reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. LPLP defended water protector and attorney

Chase Iron Eyes Chase Iron Eyes (born March 6, 1978) is a Native American activist, attorney, politician, and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He is a member of the Lakota People's Law Project and a co-founder of the Native American news website ''Last R ...

following his arrest in February 2017 and attempted to use a Necessity Defense in his trial, claiming that Iron Eyes had no choice to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline due to risks posed to his family and drinking water. Prosecutors dropped felony charges against Iron Eyes in August 2018.

Greenpower

Greenpower, founded in the beginning of 2016, is a community-based organization aiming to aid the transition away from

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...

s to locally produced and controlled

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

. Accomplishments include a robust organizing effort for Monterey Bay Community Power, a community choice energy program in San Benito, Santa Cruz, and

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

counties. More recently, Greenpower has extended its work to advocate for community choice energy in other parts of the state.

U.C. Santa Cruz Course on Justice

Daniel Sheehan taught a college-level course at the

University of California at Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay, ...

on social justice entitled "The Trajectory of Justice: Eight Cases that Changed America." The course examines foundational cases between 1970 and 2000: ''

Eisenstadt v. Baird ''Eisenstadt v. Baird'', 405 U.S. 438 (1972), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that established the right of unmarried people to possess contraception on the same basis as married couples. The Court struck down a Massachusett ...

'' (1970), '' Pentagon Papers Case'' (1971), ''In re Pappas'' (1972), ''U.S. v. James W. McCord, Jr.'' (1973), '' Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp.'' (1975), '' Greensboro Massacre (Waller v. Butkovich) (1985)'', '' American Sanctuary Movement Case (''U.S. v. Stacey Lynn Merkt, et al.'')'' (1984) and '' Avirgan v. Hull and the Iran-Contra Affair'' (1986).

References

{{reflist

External links

New Paradigm Institute website

Lakota People's Law Project website

Greenpower website

Romero Institute website
Lakota Native American rights organizations Santa Cruz, California Law firms based in California 1998 establishments in California Óscar Romero