Our Children’s Trust

Youth Sue Trump Administration To Block Fossil Fuels Over Renewables

May 31, 2025 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Resist! climate crisis, Fossil Fuels, Our Children's Trust, Renewable Energy, Trump Administration, Youth Activism

A new youth climate lawsuit by 22 Americans aged seven to 25 alleges that the Trump administration is engaging in unlawful executive overreach by issuing executive orders that intentionally boost the production of fossil fuels while frustrating the growth of renewable energy. In Lighthiser v. Trump, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, the youth plaintiffs say the administration’s actions violate their constitutional rights to life, health and safety and breach congressional mandates to safeguard public health and ecosystems. “Trump’s fossil fuel orders are a death sentence for my generation,” said named plaintiff Eva Lighthiser in a press release.

Major Win For Youth Climate Activists In Montana Supreme Court

December 20, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Montana, Our Children's Trust, Supreme Court, Youth Activism

The Montana Supreme Court upheld a landmark victory on Wednesday, affirming a lower court’s decision that the energy policies of the state violated youth activists’ constitutional rights to a clean environment. The ruling in Held v. Montana last August invalidated a law stopping regulators from taking into consideration the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions when issuing permits for new fossil fuel projects, reported The Guardian. The six-to-one decision was the first state supreme court decision of its kind in the United States.

Youth Climate Lawsuit Against Canadian Climate Policy Can Go To Trial

December 16, 2023 Dana Drugmand, DeSmog. Resist! Canada, climate crisis, Climate Justice, Legal System, Our Children's Trust, Youth Activism

A federal appeals court in Canada breathed new life into a youth-led constitutional climate lawsuit against the Canadian government, allowing it to proceed towards trial on a narrower scope and partially reversing the trial court’s ruling that the entire case should be tossed. In its opinion issued on December 13, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal determined that one part of the legal claims asserted in the case was viable and that a trial would help assess whether that claim violates the constitution. Initially filed in 2019 by 15 young Canadians, La Rose v. His Majesty the King alleges Canada’s policies and actions that perpetuate fossil fuels and worsen the climate crisis amount to violations of youths’ fundamental rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

How Suing The US Government Can Empower The Climate Movement

July 22, 2023 Alessandra Bergamin, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! climate crisis, Legal System, Our Children's Trust, Youth Activism

In 2015, 21 young Americans, more than half of whom are Black, Indigenous and people of color, began the process of suing the U.S. government. The constitutional climate lawsuit, known as Juliana v. United States, asserts that by creating a national energy system that causes climate change, the executive branch has “violated the youngest generation’s rights to life, liberty and property as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.” In the eight years since the case was filed — spanning the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden — the U.S. Department of Justice has issued numerous motions to delay the case or have it outright dismissed.

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