CNN
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The Supreme Court on Monday refused to receive a long-term appeal from a group of minors who have been trying to force the federal government to deal with climate change for many years.
The lawsuit, filed in 2015 by 21 children and teenagers, alleged that federal energy policies had unconstitutionalized and deprived them of “the fundamental rights to life, freedom, personal safety, dignity, physical integrity, and cultural and religious practices.”
The group has repeatedly lost in federal courts, and the question of justice was a procedural question dealing with whether the group has established its litigation status. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the group was not and ordered the U.S. District Court to dismiss the case.
The trust of our children, an Oregon-based nonprofit behind the lawsuit, urged the Supreme Court to hold the appeal until they decided on another case from a Texas death row inmate who was blocked from obtaining a post-conviction DNA test that he believed would be ineligible due to the death penalty. Related questions addressed whether parties were standing, even when the likelihood of changing government behavior was not likely.
“This vast, unprecedented lawsuit goes far beyond the type of issues traditionally resolved by “American courts,” the Trump administration told the Supreme Court last month.
In many cases, the Supreme Court did not explain the decision to deny the case and there were no prominent opposition.
