Does nature have rights, and if so, who decides? The City of Toledo, Ohio affirmatively addressed each question when it passed the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) in February of 2019, granting multiple rights to Lake Erie. The origins of LEBOR began in 2018 when “Toledoans for Safe Water,” a grassroots organization in Toledo, initiated a petition for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights to amend Toledo’s city charter with the purpose of safeguarding Lake Erie from chronic pollution.) The citizen-led, multi-year, initiative arose as a direct response to Toledo’s state-of-emergency in August 2014 when 500,000 Toledo-area residents were left without clean water for nearly three days, due to dangerously high levels of microcystin from algae blooms in Lake Erie. Through their efforts, Toledoans for Safe Water collected over ten-thousand petition signatures, t J.D., May 2020, University at Pittsburgh School of Law. I would like to thank Professor Grant MacIntyre and Professor Joshua Galperin of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law for encouraging and mentoring me during the drafting of this article. This publication is dedicated to my family and significant other for their constant and unwavering support throughout my time in law school.
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