Earthjustice, originally called the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, is a nonprofit organization in the United States that works on legal cases related to the environment. Its main office is in San Francisco, and it has teams in Washington, D.C., for global initiatives, communication, and policy work. There are also 14 regional offices across the United States.

The group was started in 1971 as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund but became independent from the Sierra Club. In 1997, it changed its name to Earthjustice to better show its role as a legal advocate for many organizations. By September 2018, Earthjustice had provided free legal help to over 1,000 clients, including groups like the Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, American Lung Association, Maine Lobstermen's Association, and Friends of the Everglades.

As a nonprofit, Earthjustice does not charge clients for legal services. It is funded only by donations and does not receive money from corporations or governments. In 2021, the organization earned $154 million and spent $100 million. It has about 170 full-time lawyers in 14 offices across the United States and 14 public-interest lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Earthjustice is working on 630 legal cases. The current president is Abigail Dillen, an environmental lawyer who joined Earthjustice in 2000 and previously held a leadership role in climate and energy litigation.

Programs

Earthjustice's work is organized into three main areas:

• Protecting Nature – Earthjustice works on cases in the Arctic to help protect the environment from climate change and drilling for oil and gas. It also helps protect ocean life by stopping overfishing, pollution, and loss of homes for sea animals. In wild areas, Earthjustice works to keep natural places safe and support many types of plants and animals. It also helps protect animals from disappearing because of cutting down forests, drilling for oil, building dams, draining water from streams, and climate change.

• Healthy Communities – Earthjustice works on legal cases at both local and national levels to stop pollution and harmful chemicals. It uses legal actions to make sure the Clean Air and Clean Water laws are followed and to improve systems that control harmful chemicals.

• Clean Energy and a Stable Climate – Earthjustice works to reduce the use of fossil fuels, remove obstacles to using renewable energy (like through the Right To Zero campaign), and encourage the use of clean energy sources. It also helps communities prepare for the effects of a warming planet. Through legal actions, Earthjustice creates rules for safely handling waste from coal, shuts down old coal power plants, stops coal exports, and prevents coal mining. This area also includes cases to stop oil and gas drilling on public lands, stop drilling for oil and gas in the ground, improve rules for protecting the environment and health, and stop investments in fossil fuel projects.

Earthjustice also works with groups in other countries, including Latin America, Russia, Japan, and China, to help develop environmental laws in those places. Each year, Earthjustice sends a report to the United Nations that explains how human rights and the environment are connected in different countries.

Impact on U.S. environmental law

Earthjustice has played an important role in many key environmental cases in the United States.

In the 1972 Supreme Court case Sierra Club v. Morton, Earthjustice (then called the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) helped create the right for people to take legal action when the environment is harmed. This case led the Walt Disney Company to stop its plan to build a large ski resort in the Mineral King valley in California’s Sierra Nevada Range. The lawsuit prevented any future development or private use of the land, which later became part of Sequoia National Park.

In 1993, the organization (still called the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) filed a lawsuit to stop the New World gold-silver-copper mine near Yellowstone National Park. The court ruled that both the company developing the mine and its parent company could be held responsible for breaking the Federal Clean Water Act.

In 1998, Earthjustice helped local groups convince the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to cancel plans for a uranium enrichment plant near two low-income, mostly African-American communities in Louisiana. This was the first time a government agency officially used the idea of "environmental justice" in its decision-making.

In the 2006 Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, Earthjustice lawyers helped a group of states and conservation organizations require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This was the first Supreme Court case to address climate change.

In 2020, a federal court canceled federal permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline after finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke the rules of the National Environmental Policy Act when it approved the pipeline in 2016.

Other cases did not succeed:

In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the U.S. Navy in a case involving Earthjustice. The court said the Navy did not need to stop using certain sonar equipment if marine mammals like dolphins or whales were within 2,200 yards. The court noted that in 40 years of sonar training, no injuries or deaths to marine mammals had been recorded.

In 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos. The court said Earthjustice and other groups did not follow the correct steps by filing the case before challenging a 2007 EPA decision that allowed the pesticide. However, in August 2018, the court ordered the pesticide to be banned within 60 days.

Ongoing cases include:

Since June 2025, Earthjustice and attorney Paul Schwiep have provided legal help to a group led by Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians. The group is asking a court to stop the construction of the South Florida Detention Facility in the Everglades. Earthjustice claims the facility breaks the rules of the National Environmental Policy Act, tribal cultural protections, and the Government in the Sunshine Act. The Everglades is home to the Florida Panther and the Florida bonneted bat.

Legislative positions

The Opposed Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act of 2013 (H.R. 2279; 113th Congress) is a bill that would "change the rules about the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) supervision of dangerous materials."

Marketing

In 2010, Earthjustice started a fundraising campaign using the location-based app Foursquare. The campaign included billboards in the BART system in San Francisco and became nationally recognized as one of the first successful uses of Foursquare by a nonprofit organization. This achievement was reported in media outlets such as The New York Times, Mashable, and MacLife magazine. It was also mentioned in the book The Power of Foursquare by Carmine Gallo.

Recognition

In 2001, Worth magazine, which targets wealthy individuals, named Earthjustice as one of America's 100 best charities.

In 2009, Kevin Mooney of the conservative-leaning Capital Research Center wrote that Earthjustice had represented many different clients and causes. These included groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Wilderness Society (United States), and Greenpeace, which are well-known and widely accepted. Other clients were less well-known state and local groups, such as the California Wilderness Coalition and the North Carolina Wildlife Federation. Some clients were described as groups with extreme views and a history of making controversial claims, such as those focused on protecting the Dugong.

Since April 1, 2009, Charity Navigator has given Earthjustice its highest rating, a 4-star score.

In December 2014, the organization was recognized for its tagline "Because the earth needs a good lawyer." This phrase was selected in a 2009 online contest as one of the best nonprofit taglines among 1,702 entries.