In the first eight months of 2023:
We brought the first-ever constitutional climate trial in United States history to Montana’s courts.
We secured trial dates – June 24 to July 12, 2024 – for the second constitutional climate trial in U.S. history in Hawai‘i.
We advanced groundbreaking constitutional climate litigation in four states and four countries, representing 104 youth plaintiffs who are turning to the courts to protect their human right to a safe climate.
We secured a major victory in our federal case, Juliana v. United States, putting the case back on the path to trial.
We argued Canada’s first youth-led climate case before a panel of Federal Court of Appeal judges.
We centered the importance of climate science in the highest chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in first three climate cases to be heard by the Court.
We brought our young clients together, in community with each other, providing trauma-informed care.
We secured media coverage that reached and engaged millions of people around the world.
We brought hope and a vision for the future with evidence of clean, renewable energy solutions that are cheaper than fossil and available now.
We began 2023 by collectively representing 21 young people in Utah and Hawaiʻi who argue that their states are actively contributing to the climate crisis in violation of their constitutional rights. In Utah, we appealed Judge Robert Frost’s November 2022 ruling in Natalie R. v. State of Utah. Then, in the first court hearing in Navahine F. v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation we argued why the case should move forward to trial.
In February, a two-day hearing in Canada’s first-of-its-kind federal youth climate lawsuit, La Rose v. His Majesty the King was held before a panel of three Federal Court of Appeal Justices. Collaborating with our Canadian colleagues, we framed the argument that the 15 young plaintiffs, from seven provinces and one territory, must be heard at trial.
Our Children’s Trust submitted recommendations to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child on its draft authoritative guidance for the 196 nations that have ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child. We provided concrete recommendations in all seven priority areas, emphasizing the importance of climate science in setting climate action targets to address the defining child rights challenges of this century.
Our small but mighty 30-member staff — who live in ten states and two countries — joined together for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic to prepare for the watershed year ahead. We then led two panels at the 41st Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon School of Law. In Climate on Trial in the United States, we discussed the importance of establishing a trial record in constitutional rights cases with rigorously tested evidence in court. Then, in The Injustice of 1.5°C, we argued that, to protect human rights, judicial bodies must consider, understand, and base their decisions on the best available climate science.
Meanwhile, the 17 justices in the Grand Chamber at the European Court of Human Rights heard its first climate cases back-to-back: KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, and Carême v. France. Our Children’s Trust, in partnership with leading global climate and human rights organizations, was invited to submit a Third-Party Intervention providing the court with scientific evidence that underscores the relationship between climate change and the violation of human rights. In conjunction with the hearing, we also published an article in Strasbourg Observers underscoring the importance of best available science in global climate litigation.
Also in March, we submitted our opening appeal brief in Layla H. v. Commonwealth of Virginia, on behalf of the 12 youth plaintiffs who argue that their state’s historic and ongoing permitting of fossil fuels is causing and contributing to the climate crisis and violating their constitutional rights. Leading legal scholars and medical professionals filed amicus (“friend of the court”) briefs in support of the youth’s appeal, which was submitted in response to a September 2022 ruling from Judge Jenkins Jr. to dismiss the case.
March was also a month for big advancements. First, the Utah Supreme Court, in a rare move reserved for cases of legal importance, used their discretion to retain the appeal of our case Natalie R. v. State of Utah. Second, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken denied the request of 18 Republican Attorneys General to intervene as defendants in our federal climate lawsuit, Juliana v. United States. Third, a key ruling issued by a unanimous Hawaiʻi Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutional right to a ‘life-sustaining climate system,’ a precedent set by Juliana. A concurrent opinion by Associate Justice Michael D. Wilson affirmed that courts can and will act to protect children’s fundamental rights using the best available climate science, further establishing legal precedent for our youth-led litigation. In that Supreme Court opinion, Justice Wilson cited legal precedent established by OCT and a law review article published by our Senior Litigation Attorney, Andrea Rodgers. And finally, in March, The New York Times featured Held v. State of Montana in a front-page story, which helped to drive reporters from every corner of the globe to Helena, Montana, to cover the trial and they continue to report on our youth and our work.
In a major victory for our Hawaiʻi youth plaintiffs, Judge Jeffrey P. Crabtree denied the State of Hawaiʻi’s motion to dismiss the case, putting the youth on track for trial. We also advanced to our pre-trial conference in Held v. State of Montana, preparing for the nation’s first ever constitutional climate trial.
Navahine F. v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation Youth Plaintiffs
In May, eleven law students from ten law schools clerked with Our Children’s Trust for a total of 3,300 hours researching, writing and learning from our 13 attorneys. Each law clerk had the opportunity to use, develop and refine their lawyering skills. This was our largest class of law clerks, and we cannot thank them enough.
Youth climate leaders, child rights movement advocates, and UN Commissioners serving on the Committee on the Rights of the Child attended the 40th Anniversary of Child Rights Connect in Geneva, Switzerland. Kalālapa, a Hawai’ian plaintiff, traveled internationally for the first time to share her story, calling for urgent action to the climate crisis. Her words, alongside those of her peers, will inform on-going advocacy and potential global responses to the challenges being faced by the child rights movement.
We began June finalizing our preparations for a historic first ever climate trial, only to then celebrate the first day of the month with a long-awaited decision from U.S. District Court Judge Aiken, who ruled that the amended complaint filed by the 21 youth in Juliana v. United States could once again proceed to trial. Soon after news of the ruling made waves, several members of U.S. Congress issued statements of support and solidarity with the youth plaintiffs. At trial in Juliana, the youth plaintiffs will have the opportunity to testify in court, after which Judge Aiken will rule whether the U.S. energy system violates the youth’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, property, and equal protection of the laws.
Our Children’s Trust won for the second time at the Montana Supreme Court when it denied the state’s effort to derail the case first in May and then again, a week before the trial was to commence.
Then, from June 12 to 20, the world watched as the first ever constitutional climate trial in U.S. history commenced in Helena, Montana. In Held v. State of Montana, 16 Montana youth turned to the courts to protect their equal rights to a healthy environment, life, dignity, and freedom, suing the State of Montana to protect their state constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment” as well as air, waters, wildlife and public lands that are threatened by drought, heat, fires, smoke, and floods. The youth also asked the court to enforce their rights to life, liberty, health safety, individual dignity and equality under the Montana Constitution, and declare that Montana's fossil fuel energy policies and actions violate the young people’s state constitutional rights.
Our legal team – alongside co-counsel from the Western Environmental Law Center and McGarvey Law presented a powerful case to Judge Kathy Seeley, while Montanans watched inside the courtroom and people across the state and around the world watched online. The plaintiffs took the stand to tell the court how they have each been harmed by the actions of their own government. Ten experts – all the very best in their fields of discipline – presented clear and precise evidence that documented the anthropogenic roots of the climate crisis, exact causes and impacts stemming from Montana’s perpetuation of a fossil fuel-based energy system, and how these harms devastate Montana’s natural resources and the health of its children. Testimony also laid bare the scientific evidence of how the climate crisis harms young Montanans, the macro and micro economic impacts of continuing “business as usual,” and the corresponding dramatic benefits of already feasible transitions to renewable energy.
The state of Montana called very few witnesses, deciding at the last minute not to call their primary expert witness on climate science (who was expected to present a case rooted in climate denialism), and instead presented limited evidence arguing a lack of responsibility and claims of minimal climate impact due to state’s actions.
Every day, when our youth plaintiffs walked up the hill to court, they were greeted and cheered on by a corridor of supporters who also packed the courtroom each day. Over 20 organizations – climate, environmental, human rights, social justice, and youth – from across the state are our steadfast partners, raising awareness, hosting events, and raising funds. Every day, the media filed in and filled the jury box; their stories reached over 12 million viewers during June. Cameras filled the courtroom, and the proceedings were broadcast around the globe. This was all thanks to our advocacy with the court that we had the opportunity to record history in the making.
Images from the historic Held v. State of Montana trial
Soon after the conclusion of trial in Montana, People vs. Fossil Fuels — a coalition of 1,200+ climate justice, Indigenous, Black, Latino, social justice, economic justice, progressive, youth, faith, and other organizations — delivered an expedited petition to the U.S. Department of Justice. Representing 255+ organizational sponsors and 50,000+ individuals, the petitioners demanded that the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland end their opposition to Juliana proceeding to trial. John Beard Jr., Founder, President and Executive Director of Port Arthur Community Action Network, and Zanagee Artis, Founder and Executive Director of Zero Hour delivered the petition on behalf of the coalition.
Lastly, 24 young people — representing six U.S. states and six Canadian provinces — together with Our Children’s Trust and Oxfam, submitted an Amicus Brief to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea. This is the first international court to determine what governments are required to do to tackle the climate emergency, and our brief emphasizes how important it is for the Tribunal to rely on the best available science when interpreting the governments’ obligations.
Whew! June was a massive month for Our Children’s Trust. But, we are still only halfway through the year…
We began July by submitting our 141-page Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law to Judge Seeley for consideration in Held v. State of Montana. She ruled on August 14.
Beginning in late June and continuing into July, the U.S. Department of Justice filed several motions in an effort to have the Juliana case dismissed or delayed from trial once again. In solidarity, young people from across the United States joined Juliana youth plaintiffs in urging Congress to protect their constitutional rights and recognize the disproportionate harms of the climate crisis on their generation. We joined youth meeting days co-hosted by the Rachel Carson Council, Schools for Climate Action, and Zero Hour. Simultaneously, U.S. Senator Merkley and Congresswomen Schakowsky and Jayapal reintroduced the Children’s Fundamental Rights and Climate Recovery resolution with 91 U.S. Congressional co-sponsors and 145 organizational endorsers (S.Con.Res.13, H.Con.Res.56) to recognize children’s fundamental rights and the need for climate recovery planning.
Five young people from four universities served a critical role as our government affairs interns throughout the summer, with some joining us Capitol Hill for in-person meetings with congressional offices.
Juliana v. United States Youth Plaintiffs
Our Children’s Trust attorneys for the 14 youth plaintiffs in the constitutional climate case Navahine F. v. Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (HDOT) have secured newly scheduled dates for trial. In just 10 months, the second ever constitutional climate trial in U.S. history, again brought by young people represented by Our Children’s Trust and local co-counsel Earthjustice, will commence in Honolulu from June 24 to July 12, 2024.
We filed an Amicus Brief with the United States District Court for the District of Alaska in support of the plaintiffs in Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic v. Bureau of Land Management and Center for Biological Diversity v. Bureau of Land Management. Our analysis incorporates the best available climate science, which demonstrates that continuing fossil fuel emissions resulting from the approval of the Willow Project critically harms and endangers the lives, health, and safety of children.
And on August 14, for the first time in United States history, a court ruled on the merits of Held v. State of Montana, that the government violated the constitutional rights of children through laws and actions that promote fossil fuels, ignore climate change, and disproportionately imperil young people.
Montana Youth Plaintiffs