Tag Archives: Juliana v. United States

Youth Fight Back as Biden DOJ Seeks to Derail Historic Climate Case

“These youth have been politically targeted and persecuted, for over eight years, as the enormous power and machine of the Department of Justice singles them out among tens of thousands of other plaintiffs.”

By Brett Wilkins. Published 2-2-2024 by Common Dreams

*The 21 youth plaintiffs in the constitutional climate case Juliana v. United States pose for a photo in New York City. (Photo: Our Children’s Trust)*

As the Biden administration seeks to derail a historic youth-led climate lawsuit against the U.S. government, plaintiffs in the suit—some of them now in their mid-to-late 20s—on Thursday moved to block the Department of Justice from further delaying the case.

Plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States filed a challenge to the Biden administration’s bid for a stay in the case, calling the Justice Department’s latest petition for a writ of mandamus “nothing short of shocking.”

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‘Nothing Short of Outrageous’: Attorneys for Youth Climate Plaintiffs Blast Biden DOJ

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“It is our hope and expectation that the courts will see through the DOJ’s tactics and ensure that this constitutional case gets to trial immediately,” said a lawyer with Our Children’s Trust.

By Jessica Corbett Published 7-7-2023 by Common Dreams

Nearly eight years since 21 young Americans launched a landmark federal climate lawsuit against the U.S. government, their lawyers this week called out President Joe Biden’s administration for trying to get the case dismissed using recycled arguments.

In a Friday statement responding to the U.S. Department of Justice’s most recent push to have Juliana v. United States dismissed, Andrea Rodgers, one of the Our Children’s Trust attorneys for the youth plaintiffs, charged that “the DOJ’s conduct throughout the course of this case has been nothing short of outrageous.”

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13 Youth File ‘Vital’ Constitutional Climate Lawsuit Against Virginia

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“We are tired of our fears being ignored, and the courts are a way to make sure our voices are heard by the government that represents us.”

By Jessica Corbett Published 2-9-2022 by Common Dreams

Chesterfield Power Station, a Dominion Resources’ coal fired power plant located in central Virginia. Photo: Edbrown05/Wikimedia Commons/CC

Virginia residents ages 10 to 19 filed a constitutional lawsuit against the commonwealth on Wednesday over the government’s fossil fuel policies that contribute to the climate emergency.

The 13 young plaintiffs, represented by Our Children’s Trust, are asking the court to declare that the state government’s historic and ongoing permitting of fossil fuel projects that pollute the planet violates their constitutional and public trust rights. Continue reading →

Lawyers for Landmark Kids Climate Suit Cut Off Talks With Biden DOJ

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“When will our government act like the global leaders they claim to be and let these youth be heard?”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-1-2021

A young person holds a sign in support of the youth climate plaintiffs. (Photo: Charles Edward Miller/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Lawyers representing a group of young people in a landmark climate lawsuit said Monday that settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice ended without resolution and that they’re now eagerly awaiting a trial date to argue that the nation’s fossil fuel-based energy system violates the youths’ constitutional rights.

First filed in 2015 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Juliana v. United States says the federal government’s actions allowing continued fossil fuel exploitation directly contributed to the climate crisis, thus violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, the public trust, and equal protection of the law. Continue reading →

‘Because Business as Usual Is a Death Sentence’: Youth Climate Strikers in Their Own Words

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“If we don’t come together and create change now, future generations will remember us as the people who stood idly as our world burned.”

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 9-20-2019

A sign (and costume from #ClimateStrike in Austin, Texas. Photo: Nicole Cobler/Twitter

As millions of people of all ages joined the first-ever global #ClimateStrike on Friday—answering a call from students of the school strike for climate movement—youth activists from around the world shared why they are compelled to take to the streets to demand more ambitions efforts to tackle the planetary crisis.

The youth-led strike comes ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday and launches a week of action that will culminate in another global strike on Sept. 27. Continue reading →

Greta Thunberg Just Delivered Her Testimony to US Lawmakers: It Was a Landmark UN Climate Report

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“I don’t want you to listen to me,” said the youth climate leader. “I want you to listen to the scientists.”

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 9-18-2019

Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg (L) speaks as This Is Zero Hour co-founder Jamie Margolin (C) and Alliance for Climate Education fellow Vic Barrett (R) look on during a joint hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Europe, Eurasia, Energy and the Environment Subcommittee, and the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on September 18, 2019. Screenshot: C-SPAN

Rather than delivering prepared remarks, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg submitted a landmark United Nations report on global warming as testimony at a U.S. House hearing Wednesday and urged federal lawmakers to heed experts’ warnings about the necessity of ambitious, urgent efforts to address the planetary emergency.

“I am submitting this report as my testimony because I don’t want you to listen to me,” said the Fridays for Future founder. “I want you to listen to the scientists. And I want you to unite behind the science. And then I want you to take real action.” Continue reading →

A Month Ahead of Global Climate Strike, Thousands Pledge to Attend Rallies Across Planet to ‘Turn Up the Political Heat’ and Demand Action

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“Time is running out. This decade is our last chance to stop the destruction of our people and our planet… This is why we strike.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 8-20-2019

Photo taken at the Global Climate Strike in London on Friday 15th March 2019. Next month, thousands of people from all over the world plan to rally to mark the one-year anniversary of the climate strike movement, which teenaged advocate Greta Thunberg began last year. Photo: Garry Knight/flickr

Organizers behind the global climate strike movement—from teenage students to adults who have fought for climate action for decades—on Tuesday called on all people who want to halt the climate crisis to join the worldwide action on September 20.

350.org, one of dozens of international, national, and local groups organizing the strike, announced Tuesday that with a month to go before the demonstration, thousands of people have already signed up to take part in the strike and the Week of Action that’s planned for the days that follow. Continue reading →

Landmark Youth Climate Suit Moves Ahead as Supreme Court Rejects Trump Admin. Request to Halt It

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“The youth of our nation won an important decision”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 11-3-2018

Supporters of the youthful plaintiffs in the case rally outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 29, 2018. (Photo: Peg Hunter/flickr/cc)

The nation’s top court on Friday turned down the Trump administration’s latest attempt to put the brakes on a landmark lawsuit brought by a group of young people who charge that the federal government has violated their constitutional rights by actively causing climate instability.

“The youth of our nation won an important decision,” said Julia Olson, executive director and chief legal counsel of Our Children’s Trust and co-counsel for the youth plaintiffs. She said the finding by the U.S. Supreme Court “shows even the most powerful government in the world must follow the rules and process of litigation in our democracy.” Continue reading →

Study Calls for Rapid “Negative Emissions” as Scientist Warns “Shit’s Hitting the Fan”

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New study, led by James Hansen, is meant to bolster climate kids’ case against the federal government

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-19-2017

If “large fossil fuel emissions are allowed to continue[…] the burden placed on young people and future generations may become too heavy to bear,” the researchers write. (Photo: Takver/flickr/cc)

The “shit is hitting is the fan,” said noted climate scientist James Hansen, countering “this narrative out there…that we have turned the corner on dealing with the climate problem.”

Hansen is lead author of a new study that warns that there “is no time to delay” on climate change efforts and argues that they must go beyond just slashing emissions of CO2—”the dominant control knob on global temperature”—to extracting CO2 from the air, or “negative emissions.”

The team of international researchers writes that “the world has overshot appropriate targets”—a conclusion that “is sufficiently grim to compel us to point out that pathways to rapid emission reductions are feasible.” Continue reading →

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