The Romero Institute is a nonprofit law and public policy center in
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...
. The institute has two main projects: the Lakota People's Law Project based in part in the Dakotas, and Greenpower, based in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.
History
Beginnings in 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. They had gained a win in the ''
Silkwood'' 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 far-right and neo-Nazi political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization was originally named the World Union of Free Enterprise Nation ...
members who had killed civil rights demonstrators in the 1979
Greensboro Massacre
The Greensboro massacre was a deadly confrontation which occurred on November 3, 1979, in Greensboro, North Carolina, US, when members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party (ANP) shot and killed five participants in a "Death to the Kla ...
. 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.
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. It may be an hourly, flat-rate or contingent fee. Recent studies suggest that when ...
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
.
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 court with appellate jurisdiction over the following U.S. district courts:
* Middle District of Alabama
* Northern District of Alabama
* ...
and the
Supreme Court of the United States.
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
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) ((), codified at Indian Child Welfare Act, (, )) is a United States federal law that governs jurisdiction over the removal of American Indian children from their families in custody, foster care and ...
. 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 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 on the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Indian Reservation in
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...
. 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 Re ...
following his arrest in February 2017 and attempted to use a
Necessity Defense
In the criminal law of many nations, necessity may be either a possible justification or an exculpation for breaking the law. Defendants seeking to rely on this defense argue that they should not be held liable for their actions as a crime ...
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 fuels to locally produced and controlled
renewable energy.
Accomplishments include a robust organizing effort for Monterey Bay Community Power, a
community choice energy program in
San Benito,
Santa Cruz, and
Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...
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. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge o ...
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'' (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
Lakota People's Law Project websiteGreenpower websiteRomero Institute website
Lakota
Native American rights organizations
Santa Cruz, California
Law firms based in California
1998 establishments in California
Óscar Arnulfo Romero