A West Coast federal appeals court will not revisit a youth climate lawsuit against the federal government, bringing a likely close to a nearly decade-old, groundbreaking legal challenge that spanned three presidential administrations.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected a request for a larger slate of the court’s judges to reconsider a May ruling that quashed Juliana v. United States. The lawsuit had asked the courts to order the federal government to develop a plan to phase out fossil fuels and recognize the rights of U.S. citizens to a stable climate.
Without elaborating, the 9th Circuit said last week that no judges of the court voted to rehear the May decision and denied a motion to toss out the earlier ruling.
The three 9th Circuit judges who decided the case in May — all of whom were appointed by former President Donald Trump — had ordered that Juliana be dismissed, finding that the courts “could not step into the shoes of the political branches” to provide the young challengers with the relief they sought.
