Challenging Injustice. Creating Solutions. Then and Now.
The Romero Institute combines public education, grassroots organizing, policy initiation and high-impact litigation to expose the sources of injustice and implement life-sustaining solutions. Right now, human-caused climate change is the single greatest threat to our human family. We won’t stop working to hold Big Oil accountable and make the world a better and safer place for future generations.
– Sara Nelson, Romero Institute Executive Director
Driving solutions to climate change by helping communities transition from greenhouse gas-emitting power sources to locally produced and controlled renewable energy.
Partnering with the Lakota to protect sacred lands from threats like the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), secure their rights to autonomy and self-determination, and win the return of children seized by South Dakota’s Department of Social Services.
“A very great vision is needed, and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.”
– Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux
Early Victories
Our co-founders have led many of the most significant litigation, investigation, public education, and grassroots organizing efforts that have defined social justice for over 50 years.
Under a new application of the provisions of the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Criminal Organizations Act (RICO), Christic brought charges against and exposed 29 people involved with the Iran-Contra Affair. (Avirgan v. Hull, et al)
The first vindicating argument in the American Sanctuary Movement came from Christic’s defense of Catholic workers who provided sanctuary for refugees seeking political asylum. (U.S. v. Stacey Lynn Merkt, et al.)
When Reactor 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, suffered a partial meltdown on March 28, 1979, the Christic Institute legal team was called in to help oversee the legal proceedings and represent victims of the disaster.
