{"id":4930,"date":"2025-03-27T00:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T00:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/u-s-supreme-court-denies-appeal-in-climate-change-lawsuit-justia-news-march-26-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-03-27T00:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T00:40:11","slug":"u-s-supreme-court-denies-appeal-in-climate-change-lawsuit-justia-news-march-26-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/u-s-supreme-court-denies-appeal-in-climate-change-lawsuit-justia-news-march-26-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Supreme Court Denies Appeal in Climate Change Lawsuit \u2014 Justia News \u2014 March 26, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>On Monday, March 24, 2025, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear <em>Juliana et al. v. United States of America<\/em>, a lawsuit brought by 21 young people alleging climate-change related injuries due to the federal government\u2019s adoption of policies related to fossil fuel extraction and consumption.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Justice has defended against this lawsuit across three presidential administrations since the case was first filed in 2015. At the time of filing, plaintiffs were between the ages of 8 and 19. The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon initially agreed to hear the case. The Justice Department sought an interlocutory appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appeals court remanded the case and instructed the trial court to dismiss the case for lack of standing. The trial court permitted the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint, at which point the appeals court once again instructed the case to be dismissed. Plaintiffs then filed a petition for certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to hear the appeal.<\/p>\n<p>In a press release, Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson wrote that this denial of certiorari \u201cbrings this long saga to a conclusion. Through [the Justice Department\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Division]\u2019s work, the Justice Department is enforcing our nation\u2019s environmental laws and safeguarding America\u2019s air, water, and natural resources. Cases like <em>Juliana<\/em> distract from those enforcement efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Julia Olson, a lawyer representing Our Children\u2019s Trust, the nonprofit law firm representing the plaintiffs in\u00a0<em>Juliana<\/em>, stated that \u201c[t]he Supreme Court\u2019s decision today is not the end of the road and the impact of [<em>Juliana<\/em>] cannot be measured by the finality of this case alone.\u201d Our Children\u2019s Trust has filed multiple lawsuits alleging that state and federal governments exacerbate climate change. In <em>Held v. State<\/em>, the the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the Montana Supreme Court provides a right to a safe and livable climate. In <span data-ogsc=\"black\"><em>Navahine v. Hawai\u02bbi Department of Transportation<\/em><\/span>, a settlement was reached whereby Hawaii agreed to decarbonize its transportation system by 2045.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Additional Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/us-supreme-court-will-not-hear-novel-youth-led-climate-change-case-2025-03-24\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">US Supreme Court will not hear novel youth-led climate change case<\/a>, <em>Reuters<\/em> (March 24, 2025)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-statement-juliana-case\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Justice Department Statement on Juliana Case<\/a>, <em>U.S. Department of Justice<\/em> (March 24, 2025)<\/p>\n<p>Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Dismisses Climate Change Lawsuit, <em>Justia Legal News<\/em> (January 22, 2020)<\/p>\n<p>Plaintiffs Cite Supreme Court\u2019s Abortion Decision as Support in Climate Change Lawsuit, <em>Justia Legal News<\/em> (October 12, 2022)<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/dockets.justia.com\/docket\/oregon\/ordce\/6:2015cv01517\/123110\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Juliana, et al v United States of America, et al<\/a><\/em> (Case No. 6:2015cv01517)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/appellate-courts\/ca9\/18-36082\/18-36082-2020-01-17.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Opinion in <em>Juliana v. United States<\/em><\/a> (Case No. 18-36082 (9th Cir. 2020))<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/montana-supreme-court-affirms-landmark-youth-led-climate-decision-upholding-constitutional-rights-to-a-safe-and-livable-climate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Montana Supreme Court affirms landmark youth-led climate decision, upholding constitutional rights to a safe and livable climate<\/a>, <em>Western Environmental Law Center<\/em> (December 18, 2024)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/governor.hawaii.gov\/newsroom\/office-of-the-governor-news-release-historic-agreement-settles-navahine-climate-litigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Office of the Governor \u2013 News Release \u2013 Historic Agreement Settles Navahine Climate Litigation<\/a>, <em>Office of the Governor, Governor Josh Green, M.D.<\/em> (June 20, 2024)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo Credit:\u00a0<\/strong>Jacob Lund \/ Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\n            var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n            if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n            js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n            js.src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.11&appId=1639788792774312&autoLogAppEvents=1\";\n            fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n        }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, March 24, 2025, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear Juliana et al. v. United States of America, a lawsuit brought by 21 young people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[366,200,2185,143,1242,309,303,450,310,533,272],"class_list":["post-4930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-appeal","tag-change","tag-climate","tag-court","tag-denies","tag-justia","tag-lawsuit","tag-march","tag-news","tag-supreme","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}