Montana and a coalition of Republican-run states are asking a federal court for permission to intervene in a youth-led lawsuit that seeks to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to boost oil, gas and coal.
Republican attorneys general in 19 states and the territory of Guam argue in a brief filed Tuesday that the executive orders targeted by the lawsuit already have “provided tremendous benefits to the state intervenors and their millions of citizens, as well as the promise and hope for a more prosperous, strong, and peaceful future.”
The brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana accuses the 22 young people who filed suit in May of raising “policy grievances under the guise of unenumerated ‘constitutional’ harms.”
The young people — some of whom won a landmark climate case against Montana in 2023 — allege that a trio of Trump executive orders would worsen climate change, violating their Fifth Amendment right to life and liberty.
