A lawsuit is snaking its way through the courts that seeks to advance the idea that it is the federal government’s responsibility under the Constitution to protect people from so-called climate change.
While the contrast between Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump is stark, all three presidents have opposed Juliana v. United States moving forward.
The left-wing Jacobin Magazine is in favor of making the support of fossil fuel production unconstitutional, according to an article it posted:
The lawsuit, Juliana v. United States, was brought by 21 young plaintiffs in 2015 and seeks to establish a federal, constitutional right to a livable planet. If the case is successful, any federal policies that enable more fossil fuel development could be challenged as unconstitutional.
But the Obama and Trump administrations both vehemently fought the lawsuit, and now those close to the case say Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicated it will also use every procedural tool at its disposal to prevent the lawsuit from ever getting a trial.
“I have asked [them] very directly, if we win this motion, and we can move forward with the case, do you intend to go to trial?” Julia Olson, the lead plaintiff’s lawyer, told the magazine. “Their response has always been something along the lines of, ‘It is our position that the court doesn’t have jurisdiction and that this case should never go to trial.’”
Most judges have dismissed the lawsuit for not having standing, with the exception of Oregon District Court Judge Ann Aiken, a President Bill Clinton appointee.
“I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society,” Aiken wrote in a procedural ruling on the case in 2016. “The plaintiffs are asking a federal court system to enshrine a constitutional right to a livable climate.”
The magazine article continued:
After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case in 2020 because it concluded the plaintiffs lacked standing, the Juliana plaintiffs revised their complaint. Now, parties are waiting on a ruling from Aiken about whether the revised complaint addresses the Ninth Circuit Court’s concerns — a ruling that the plaintiffs’ lawyers expect will be favorable, allowing the case to again proceed. But these same lawyers say they expect the Biden administration to fight them every step of the way, just like his presidential predecessors.
“There was zero shift when Biden took office, zero shift from the Trump administration,” Olson said.
The magazine quoted the original lawsuit:
For over fifty years, the United States of America has known that Carbon Dioxide (‘CO2’) pollution from burning fossil fuels was causing global warming and dangerous climate change, and that continuing to burn fossil fuels would destabilize the climate system on which present and future generations of our nation depend for their wellbeing and survival. Defendants also knew the harmful impacts of their actions would significantly endanger Plaintiffs. Despite this knowledge, Defendants continued their policies and practices of allowing the exploitation of fossil fuels.
The plaintiffs are now waiting for a ruling from Aiken on their motion to proceed to trial.
The case is Juliana v. United States, No. 18-36082, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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