Oregon Democrats join 40 federal lawmakers urging rehearing on landmark youth climate case

More than three dozen Congressional Democrats, led by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, are hoping to help revive a landmark lawsuit against the U.S. government by 21 young Americans – including 11 Oregonians – over continued federal support for fossil fuel production and a failure to urgently mitigate the worst effects of climate change, violating the plaintiffs’ right to a livable environment.

The case, Juliana v. United States, was first filed in the U.S. District Court in Eugene nearly 10 years ago. At the time, the youth behind the suit were between eight- and 18-years old. It has not gone to trial following pressure from three presidential administrations, which asked the court multiple times to have the case dismissed.

The intervention from lawmakers follows other briefs in support of a rehearing submitted in June by several law professors and more than a dozen international climate rights experts. The case is the longest running such suit. Young people have also sued state governments in Montana and Hawaii for violating state constitutional rights to safe and livable environments – and they won.

In the Juliana suit, fossil fuel companies, the U.S. Department of Justice, former President Donald Trump and Republican states attorneys general have filed court documents against the case. It was deemed effectively dead in May, when three Trump-appointed judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with the U.S. Department of Justice in ordering the case to be dismissed.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/07/02/oregon-democrats-join-40-federal-lawmakers-urging-rehearing-on-landmark-youth-climate-case/