Supreme Court declines appeal from youths seeking to force action on climate crisis

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a long-shot appeal from a group of minors who have for years been attempting to force the federal government to address climate change.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a long-shot appeal from a group of minors who have for years been attempting to force the federal government to address climate change. Filed by 21 children and teenagers in 2015, the lawsuit alleged that the federal government’s energy policies unconstitutionally deprived them of their “fundamental rights to life, liberty, personal security, dignity, bodily integrity, and their cultural and religious practices.” The group has repeatedly lost in federal courts and the question for the justices was a procedural issue dealing with whether the group had established standing to sue. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the group does not and it had ordered a federal district court to dismiss the case. Our Children’s Trust, an Oregon-based nonprofit behind the lawsuit, urged the Supreme Court to hold the appeal until it decides another case from a death row inmate in Texas who has been blocked from obtaining post-conviction DNA testing he believes might render him ineligible for the death penalty. The related question dealt with whether a party has standing even if a ruling in their favor is unlikely to change the government’s behavior. “This sprawling and unprecedented suit is far beyond the type of matter traditionally resolved by ‘American courts,’” the Trump administration told the Supreme Court in written arguments last month. As if often the case, the Supreme Court did not explain its decision to deny the case and there were no noted dissents.