Is “The Constitutional Question of the Twenty-First Century” Now Before The Ninth Circuit?

According to one of the attorneys in the so-called climate kids’ lawsuit the answer is yes, and New Yorker writer Carolyn Kormann appears to be sympathetic. She concludes her article about the case with an excerpt from the plaintiff attorney’s concluding statement before the court.“If we look back on the twentieth century,” said attorney Julia Olson, “we can see that race and sex discrimination were the constitutional questions of that era. And when our great-grandchildren look back at the twenty-first century, they will see that government-sanctioned climate destruction was the constitutional issue of this century.” The defendant in this case is the United States, and government attorneys would like to see this case dismissed in part on the basis of standing, or the plaintiffs’ lack of it. The trial court judge concluded the plaintiffs did have standing to sue because they had demonstrated three things: that they had suffered injuries, that those injuries were traceable to the government’s actions, and that the court had the ability to provide a remedy. The outcome of this case is likely to ride on how the court views that last claim.