![]() ![]() The distinction is significant, between what the government cannot do and what it must do. In contrast, negative rights found in the Federal Bill of Rights only guarantee protection against government action. Positive rights provide citizens with a right to certain governmental actions, including in New York: welfare, education, and now a healthful environment. ![]() The New York State Constitution encompasses positive rights in addition to negative rights. In many ways, the New York State Constitution offers greater protection than its federal counterpart. This explainer outlines several facets of that question. There has been considerable commentary on the potential impact of the new Amendment, commonly referred to as the “Green Amendment.” The question yet unresolved is whether the Green Amendment will be no more than an abstract statement of a societal desire or a meaningful mechanism for citizens to safeguard their environment. Those rights include freedom of speech, trial by jury, religious liberty, habeas corpus, compensation for taking of private property, equal protection of law, and security against unreasonable searches and seizure. On November 2, 2021, New York voters approved an Amendment to the State Constitution’s Bill of Rights providing that: “Each person shall have the right to clean air and water, and to a healthful environment.” In those sixteen words, the right to a healthy environment was, for the first time, cloaked in constitutional protection in New York and deemed the equivalent to the sixteen current constitutional guarantees in the state Bill of Rights. New York’s New Constitutional Environmental Bill of Rights: Impact and Implicationsīy Scott Fein and Tyler Otterbein Introduction ![]()
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