Pirate's Cove

Too bad the Justices didn’t tell the kiddies “if you’ve stopped using fossil fuels and made your own lives carbon neutral we’ll listen”

US Supreme Court turns away bid to revive youth climate change lawsuit

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to revive a novel lawsuit by 21 young people claiming the U.S. government’s energy policies violate their rights to be protected from climate change.

The justices denied, opens new tab a so-called petition for a writ of mandamus, opens new tab the youth activists filed in September that argued that the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had overstepped its authority by taking the “extraordinary” step of ordering a federal judge in Oregon to dismiss the case.

The 9th Circuit did so at the urging of the U.S. Department of Justice after the Oregon judge allowed the young people’s lawyers to amend their 2015 complaint to address problems the appeals court raised in an earlier 2020 ruling in the case.

Tuesday’s action by the justices is likely not the last time the Supreme Court will encounter the case, as the youth activists have until Dec. 9 to file a certiorari petition that they say will raise broader arguments over why the case should be revived and why they have standing to sue.

It’s a matter for lawmakers, not the courts

“The standing of children to be heard in their right to life case is a pressing issue of national importance,” Julia Olson, a lawyer for the young people at the non-profit Our Children’s Trust, said in a statement.

If the kids are so concerned they should practice what they preach and convince people to do the same, not attempt to force their cult beliefs on everyone else.

In Tuesday’s case, the youth plaintiffs had alleged the U.S. government has permitted, authorized and subsidized fossil fuel extraction and consumption despite knowing those actions cause catastrophic global warming.

By contributing to climate change, the plaintiffs said U.S. energy policies violate their rights to due process and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.

But in a 2020 ruling, the 9th Circuit held it was beyond the power of the courts to order and supervise remedies designed to address climate change and that such complex policy decisions were better left to Congress and the executive branch.

They cannot convince others to act, hence, they want to use the courts. And, by they, I mean the adults that are really behind this, using the kids as props. It’s shameful.