Public Justice Center

Background

Public Justice Center is a left-of-center activist group that advocates for, and provides, legal services to residents of Baltimore, Maryland. ¹

Public Justice Center was founded in 1985, claiming to be a watchdog group against “racial inequality” in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to providing legal counseling and educational services, the group advocates policy proposals it claims will reform the “systems that keep people down.”  ⁴

Activities

Public Justice Center offers legal services and educational resources for residents of Baltimore, Maryland. Such resources include a focus on housing, workers’ rights, school suspensions, homelessness, foster care, welfare benefits, and other related areas. ²

In 2014, the organization claimed to focus on achieving “race equity” by partnering with the Racial Justice Institute (RJI) at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law and Baltimore Racial Justice Action. ¹ Public Justice Center claims to be committed to applying diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles within its organization and practices. ⁵

Public Justice Center is a member of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative, along with several other left-of-center organizations. ⁶

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

Public Justice Center was one of more than 650 signatories on an August 2022 letter organized by People vs Fossil Fuels and addressed to the “Democratic Leadership” in Congress. The letter was titled: “Opposition to Fossil Fuel Project Approvals and Permitting Reforms Conditioned on the Inflation Reduction Act.” ³

The letter portrayed as “false solutions” carbon sequestration, carbon-free nuclear energy and all sources of energy not approved as “renewable” by the signatories: “Relying only on large scale investments in renewable energy and environmental justice alone will not stave off climate disaster if Congress simultaneously puts its legislative foot on the gas to expand fossil fuel production and false solutions like carbon capture, hydrogen, biomass, biofuels, factory farm gas, and nuclear power.” ³

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ⁷ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ⁸

Financials

For 2023, Public Justice Center reported a total revenue of $4,303,341, total expenses of $4,031,510, and net assets of $3,434,497. ⁹

Public Justice Center has received several grants from George Soros’ Open Society Network. In 2020, Foundation to Promote Open Society (FPOS) gave Public Justice Center a $50,000 grant to support its Baltimore Black Worker Center and another $150,000 to support its Black Leaders Organizing for Change project. ¹⁰ In 2022, FPOS gave another $162,500 grant to the organization for its Black Leaders Organizing for Change project meant to “engage in education and organizing to bring about policing reforms in Baltimore.” ¹¹

Grantmaking

In 2023, Public Justice Center provided a grant of $145,701 to community activist group Village of Love and Resistance (VOLAR) for “community services” in the city of Baltimore. ^{12 13}

Leadership

As of 2024, Colette Colclough was the board chair of Public Justice Center. ¹⁴ Colclough is the founder and CEO of Forward Women’s Leadership Forum and previously worked for Maryland’s state Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation as well as the Arlington, Virginia-based television station WJLA. ^{15 15 16}

Other board members included Mickey Blumenthal, Xander Perry of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Larry C. Simmons Jr. of the Nobody Asked Me Campaign, and Rashad Staton of Community Law in Action. ¹⁴