Twenty-one young people are suing the federal government over climate change. When the lawsuit was filed in 2015, the youngest was 8 years old and the oldest was 19.
Our Children's Trust
Attorneys for a group of young people suing the federal government over climate change have filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in the hopes of keeping their lawsuit alive.
Juliana v. United States was filed almost 10 years ago in Eugene federal court. It claims the government encourages policies that harm the environment and that it’s the constitutional right of citizens to have a healthy climate.
Julia Olson, with Our Children’s Trust, is the lead attorney representing the youth plaintiffs. She told KLCC a decision by a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in May to effectively dismiss the case was against the rule of law and precedent.
She said they’re asking the Supreme Court to remand the case back to Eugene Federal Judge Ann Aiken.
“We’re actually very optimistic that on the law, these plaintiffs should absolutely win this,” she said. “And, we think the justices at the Supreme Court, the majority of them, actually do care about the rules and processes for how cases should move through the federal courts.”
Related: Federal judge in Oregon denies efforts to dismiss climate lawsuit filed by young people
The plaintiffs have filed a seldom-used motion called a writ of mandamus — which has been used seven times by the Justice Department to quash the lawsuit. Olson said now the plaintiffs are using the motion in their effort to bring the lawsuit to court in Eugene.
“And they are now using this extraordinary petition to say that the 9th Circuit so egregiously abused its power that it needs to be corrected by the Supreme Court immediately and sent back to the district court here in Oregon,” she said.
Olson said the youngest of the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit in 2015 was 8 years old at the time. Now he’s driving.
Some of them will be voting in their first presidential election in November.
“I think our courts, the Supreme Court, needs to show the youth of America that fair process still exists,” she said. “And that they can bring cases on constitutional violations to the courts and the courts will fairly hear them.”
Olson added she thinks the government has fought this case so hard because they know there’s merit to it.