A group of youth asked the Supreme Court to resurrect their dismissed lawsuit that alleges the U.S. government’s energy policies violate their purported right to be protected from a changing climate.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by 21 young Americans in the federal district court in Oregon.
The petitioners’ attorney, Julia A. Olson of the Oregon-based law firm Our Children’s Trust told The Epoch Times the petition for a writ of mandamus—a court order commanding a government official or a lower court to perform an act—in the case was filed with the Supreme Court on Sept. 12. The court’s docket hasn’t reflected the new filing.
The plaintiffs argued in the original lawsuit that the government had known for decades that “carbon dioxide pollution was causing catastrophic climate change and that massive emission reductions and nationwide transition away from fossil fuels were needed to protect plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”
But despite the “severe dangers posed by carbon pollution,” the government made things worse “through fossil fuel extraction, production, consumption, transportation, and exportation,” according to the complaint.
The federal government previously said in the litigation it agrees that climate change is a serious problem. It also asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the lawsuit, saying climate policies should not be determined by the courts.
The government said it was trying to address the issue within the legal framework Congress has provided.
“That democratic system and statutory framework do not contemplate judicial resolution of complex social problems, which require the balancing of ‘competing social, political, and economic forces,’” the government said, citing legal precedent.
In May, the circuit court directed U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken—who previously denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case in December 2023—to reverse course, saying the plaintiffs’ claim lacked legal standing.
Standing refers to the right of someone to sue in court. The parties must show a strong enough connection to the action to justify their participation in a lawsuit.
In their new petition, the plaintiffs said that the Ninth Circuit erred in dismissing the case and, in the process, denied their “clear and indisputable right to fair process and an appeal before a merits panel in the court of appeals.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.
