Any day now, a federal district court is expected to deliver a ruling in the famous ‘Youth v Gov’ case that could pave the way to a constitutional right to a safe and livable climate. But right now, President Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and his Attorney General Merrick Garland are signaling they intend to squash the case, and deny future generations of Americans legal protection from climate chaos.
That’s why we’re excited and proud to be one of more than 200 organizations fighting to support the historic Juliana v US case, and other youth-led climate litigation.
A lot of folks have become familiar with the Juliana case through the Netflix documentary, Youth v Gov, streaming this month! But in case you missed it, here’s the back-story:
In 2015, 21 youth and their organizational and legal partners filed a constitutional climate lawsuit: Juliana v. United States, against the U.S. government. Their complaint asserts that, through the government’s affirmative actions that cause climate change, it has violated young people’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public resources.
President Biden campaigned on a promise to listen to young people, fight the climate crisis, and be America’s #1 climate grandparent. But his DOJ is still actively opposing the Juliana case, denying young people their rights and seeking to prevent a judge from seeing evidence in open court about how the US government is causing harm.
While the youth in Juliana wait for a decision from the U.S. District Court, they’re calling on all of us to echo their demand for constitutional rights and a U.S. energy policy that ends the era of fossil fuels.
The Juliana youth are counting on us to support their case. Can you join hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals from across the U.S. and around the world to demand that the Biden DOJ end its opposition to the Juliana case proceeding to trial?
I received an email today about Juliana Vs. United States. The Dept. of Justice and the executive branch are the defendants if the case proceeds. Shouldn’t the court be the entity you are appealing to, to bring the case to trial and hear the suit you have filed? DOJ, Attorney General Garland and the Biden administration are not going to do anything to encourage this amazingly broad and potentially catastrophic lawsuit. It would be political suicide, just as the degradation of our environment is fast becoming global suicide.
Nope, the petition is addressed to the right people. As we say in the blog post and email: “In 2015, 21 youth and their organizational and legal partners filed a constitutional climate lawsuit: Juliana v. United States, against the U.S. government. Their complaint asserts that, through the government’s affirmative actions that cause climate change, it has violated young people’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public resources.” So we’re already in court – check out this article for more background: https://www.levernews.com/biden-is-preparing-to-crush-historic-climate-change-lawsuit/
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