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      juliana v united states

      Youth plaintiffs await the start of the nation's first youth climate change trial

      Big Win for Climate Youth in Big Sky Country

      We must give credit to the young people who are pushing President Biden, the courts, and Congress to ensure that we all have a future worth living for.

      Stan Cox
      Sep 14, 2023

      The wording in Article IX, Section 1, of Montana’s constitution couldn’t be clearer: “The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.” Accordingly, in April, a district court judge in Yellowstone County voided a permit for a natural-gas-fired power plant under construction there. Over its lifetime, it would have released an estimated 23 million tons of planet-roasting carbon dioxide and that, ruled the judge, was incompatible with a “clean and healthful environment” in Montana or, for that matter, anywhere else.

      Within a week, the state legislature had voted to reinforce a 2011 law barring the consideration of climate change in policymaking and so allowing the construction of the power plant to resume. But that wasn’t the end of the matter. Last month, the lawmakers were slapped down a second time when another district judge ruled in favor of a group of 16 youthful Montanans in a suit filed in 2020 seeking to strike down that very 2011 anti-climate legislation.

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      A man stands with his belongings in a paper bag against the ocean.

      The Youth of Montana and the People of Maui Know the Climate Crisis Is Here Now

      The fire struck as the young plaintiffs of Montana won a historic legal victory acknowledging their right to a “clean and healthful environment.”

      Amy Goodman
      Denis Moynihan
      Aug 18, 2023

      Climate change-fueled drought and high winds created the perfect conditions for raging wildfires across the Hawaiiian island of Maui last week, burning the historic town of Lāhainā to the ground. As of Thursday, the death toll was 111, but that number is expected to go much higher as the difficult task of searching the acres of burnt wreckage slowly proceeds. The number of people killed by the massive conflagration could surpass 1,000.

      The fire struck on August 8, not long after the hottest July in recorded human history, and just as a decision was issued in an historic climate trial that took place in Helena, Montana, over 3,000 miles away. There, 16 young Montanans, aged five to 22, were suing the State of Montana for violating their constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment.” After almost two and a half years of litigation, Montana Judge Kathy Seeley ruled in favor of the youth plaintiffs, declaring Montana law mandating aggressive promotion of fossil fuels at the expense of the climate was “unconstitutional on its face.”

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      Juliana plaintiffs

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

      "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.

      Jessica Corbett
      Jul 07, 2023

      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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