Appeals Court Takes Up Youth Climate Change Lawsuit Against Trump

A federal court will hear arguments on whether a novel global warming lawsuit that would pit the U.S. government against children can move to trial.

A federal appeals court announced that it will hear oral arguments on December 11 on whether a groundbreaking climate change lawsuit brought by 21 children and young adults against the Trump administration can proceed to trial.

A trial date of Feb. 5, 2018, in Eugene, Oregon had been set by a lower federal court in the lawsuit, Juliana et al v. United States.

But in July, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco paused the lawsuit after the Trump administration filed a petition asking it to review the lower court's decision to allow the case to go to trial.  The Department of Justice contended in its petition that proceeding with the case would launch a discovery process that would be onerous to the federal government.

Filed in 2015, Juliana et al v. United States seeks sweeping changes in federal climate efforts and in government programs that subsidize or foster the development of fossil fuels.  A trial would mean that decades of federal policy on fossil fuels and climate change—including information that had previously been unknown or hidden—could come to light through discovery and be subject to public scrutiny even before the court renders a decision.  The suit was brought by Our Children's Trust, an environmental advocacy group.

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