First the Utah Supreme Court decided in June 2024 that they would hear the suit to see if it should be revived. Then in September 2024 they seemed reluctant to revive the suit. And now
Utah Supreme Court rules on teens’ lawsuit over climate change policies
The Utah Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit filed by a group of teens against the state arguing its fossil fuel policies contribute to climate change and harm their lives.
In a unanimous ruling, the Court upheld a lower court judge’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit. However, the justices reversed the lower court and ordered the lawsuit to be dismissed “without prejudice,” allowing the teens to bring a new legal challenge. That gave them a partial victory.
Seven teens represented by Our Children’s Trust sued Governor Spencer Cox and Utah’s Division of Oil, Gas & Mining. They basically argued that the state’s energy policies — with a heavy reliance on fossil fuels — contributes heavily to climate change and that harms their health, in violation of the Utah Constitution’s “right to life” provision. They were asking the Utah Supreme Court to revive their lawsuit and the justices heard arguments last year. (snip)
But Justice Hagen and the rest of the Court did leave a door open for the teens to bring a new legal claim. They ordered the lawsuit to be dismissed “without prejudice.”
“In the proceedings below, the youth plaintiffs did not seek leave to amend their complaint. So once the district court determined that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, it should have dismissed the complaint without prejudice, providing the youth plaintiffs an opportunity to cure the jurisdictional deficiencies in a repleaded complaint,” she wrote.
So, the youts and their big money astroturf enablers can waste more time and money bringing another suit in an attempt to force Everyone Else to comply with their cult beliefs. And, sadly, the Court didn’t ask the youts if they had given up their own use of fossil fuels and make their own lives carbon neutral. But, remember, the cult will never give up.
That’s OK. Dems will just shop around for a better court and try again. They should get the DC circuit court to issue an injunction against the Utah court to prevent them from dismissing this case.