Why Climate Boomers Back the Kids in Youth v. Gov — and how you can help
Originally published by Lawrence MacDonald @ClimateBoomer on Medium.
April 4, 2024
March 12, 2024: The kids suing Virginia for violating their constitutional rights and elders who support them.
Across the United States and the world, kids are suing governments for supporting the fossil fuel industry, harming them and endangering their futures. Elders are lining up to support these cases. Here’s how you can help.
(TLDR? Sign up here to join the April 21 White House rally to #SaveJuliana)
In March I traveled to Richmond, Virginia’s capital, to join other elders from ThirdAct Virginia supporting kids who are suing the Commonwealth for violating their constitutional rights to life and liberty by promoting the development of fossil fuels.
The kids were appealing a trial court’s dismissal of their lawsuit, Layla H. v. Common Wealth of Virginia, on the grounds of “sovereign immunity” — that Virginia is immune from such suits. The hearing took only an hour and the three-judge panel has yet to announce its decision. For me, sitting in the courtroom was a moving introduction to the world of constitutional climate lawsuits.
The chamber where we sat, lined with oil portraits of justices and the seals of the Commonwealth and Supreme Court of Virginia, previously witnessed Loving v. Virginia, the landmark civil rights case. In 1967, eight years after a Virginia court sentenced Richard and Mildred Loving to prison for violating a 1924 law prohibiting interracial marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned their convictions and struck down Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act, ending such laws across the country.
Listening to lawyers from Our Children’s Trust, which represents the kids in Virginia and similar cases across the country, persuasively argue the finner points of sovereign immunity and standing, I hoped it wouldn’t take eight years for a just ruling, as it did in Loving v. Virginia. A decision then would come too late to avert climate catastrophe.
“Can I give you a hug?”
After the hearing, the kids suing Virginia and the elders supporting them crossed the street to the small square beneath Richmond’s historic Bell Tower, where the plaintiff's attorney, Andrew Welle, briefed the crowd:
“The Virginia Court of Appeals was presented with a simple question today. Will it uphold the plainly wrong decision of the court below that would eradicate fundamental rights of Virginians by carving out an exception to constitutional oversight for fossil fuels? Or will it follow the path of justice and growing number of courts around the country that find in favor of children’s rights to a stable climate and safe future?”
One of the young plaintiffs, Kat, told why she and her peers are pushing for a trial:
“Last November was the first year in which I had the opportunity to vote, but it didn’t take 18 years for me or my fellow plaintiffs to feel the adverse effects of climate change. We’ve seen our houses flood, we’ve experienced tick-borne diseases, we’ve had school and activities and health disrupted by increasing heat and by extreme weather.”
Bill Muth, a Richmond-based leader of ThirdAct Virginia, told the kids what many elders in the crowd were likely thinking:
“It’s a humbling and tricky thing to stand here before you. We oldens praise you and want to listen and follow. But it’s also unfair to put the onus on you, our grandchildren, to fix the problem. We want you to know that we love you, are here with you and for you — today and for as long as we are on this planet together, if you will have us. We WILL NOT look away. We refuse to let the power-addicted oligarchs take away your futures. We have material resources and time to give. We can lead AND we can follow, as needed.”
After the rally, I approached the young plaintiffs holding their banner and asked if I could shake their hands. As I moved along the row, I began to cry, moved by their sacrifice in giving up childhood to argue their right to a livable planet, and saddened that powerful adults are trying to deny them their day in court. Seeing my tears, some of the kids teared up, too. The last youth in the row asked: “Can I give you a hug?”
Monica Sanders, an attorney and scholar focused on climate and resilience, covered the Virginia hearing for Forbes. She explains how the Virginia case fits into Our Children’s Trust’s broader legal strategy — challenging government actions that worsen climate change on constitutional grounds.
Last year a court in Montana affirmed, in Held V. Montana, that young people have a right to a healthy environment. Although the state has appealed, Sanders believes the ruling
“strengthens the argument for youth climate activists in Virginia, showcasing that courts in other states are recognizing the importance of protecting the environment for future generations.”
The next state-level case will be in Hawaii, she writes, where a similar case is set to go before a judge in June.
The Mother of Constitutional Climate Cases
Meanwhile, the mother of the U.S. constitutional climate cases, Juliana v. U.S., has been stalled in Federal courts by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which has fought aggressively to prevent the case from coming to trial, including a seldom-used measure known as “a petition for a writ of mandamus.”
As Our Children’s Trust explains it:
This is an extreme legal tactic used by the Trump Administration to subvert the normal legal process, prevent the case from proceeding to trial, and silence the voices of young people seeking to highlight the injustice of climate change at the hands of the United States government. The Trump administration used this delay tactic a record six times, and now Biden’s DOJ has followed in their footsteps and filed it for an unprecedented seventh time.
Why would the Biden administration deploy the full force of the U.S. government to oppose a bunch of kids? Ray Levy Uyeda, a staff reporter at the non-profit news outlet Prism, asks and answers this question: “It’s likely because Biden knows that when the facts are presented in a court of law, this kind of climate case is likely to win,” she writes.
“By blocking this case from moving forward, the Biden Administration is not only stifling the voices of a young bloc of voters he’ll need to win reelection in November, he is also preventing critical evidence of fossil fuel misdeeds from making its way to the public. Namely, that corporations knew their oil and gas products would alter the global climate system and that the government was aware of these outcomes. Despite its knowledge of the outcomes, the government continued to hand out billions in subsidies to fossil fuel companies. This is the evidence that each administration, including Biden’s, is afraid of. This is the evidence that a judge might find compelling. This is the evidence that could disrupt the nation’s oil and gas status quo.”
There is a solution, of course. President Biden and the DOJ could stop opposing the case and allow it to come to trial. Letting the case come to trial is the right thing to do. It’s also the smart thing to do. Regardless of how the case would ultimately fare in the hard-right-dominated Supreme Court, allowing it to come to trial would signal that President Biden means it when he says that climate change is the “number one issue facing humanity” and that he is using all the powers at his disposal to prevent catastrophe.
Letting Juliana v. U.S. Go to Trial Would Be Smart Politics for Biden
In so doing, President Biden would align himself with what is likely the most appealing group of folks ever to sue the U.S. government, the 21 youth plaintiffs in Juliana v. U.S., whose stories have already been told in a book and a movie.
The book, “The 21: The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the U.S. Government Over Climate Change,” by Elizabeth Rusch, tells the gripping inside story of the case. Published last September, it weaves together the lives of the young plaintiffs, the depraved efforts of the U.S. government to prevent the case from coming to trial, and the fierce, loving determination of the brilliant attorney who leads the effort, Juliana Olson.
The 2021 documentary film, Youth v. Gov, brings it all to life with candid scenes of the kids alone, together, frightened by climate catastrophes, and showing up in their best clothes for numerous court hearings. The movie has all the makings of a Disney production about young people triumphing over venal adults minus, at least so far, the happy ending. You can watch the trailer here:
Here’s How You Can Help
So how can you help? You can start by amplifying this story right now. Clap! (In Medium, you can clap up to 50 times for one story by clicking the applause icon.) Share it on your favorite social media platform using the icons at the top of the page. Highlight the bit you like best or post a comment.
More importantly, explore the Our Children’s Trust website, then go to their excellent Take Action page, where you can sign up for news announcements, send letters to the DOJ, write to your member of Congress, sign on as an individual supporter, or join the coalition on behalf of your organization.
If you are in one of the five states with pending legal action (Florida, Hawaii, Montana, Utah and Virginia), learn more about the case in your state so you can show up in support, as I did, the next time the kids are in court demanding that the government stop violating their rights to life, liberty and property by propping up the fossil fuel industry.
Finally, if you will be in the Washington DC area on April 21 sign up here to join a pre-Earth Day rally at the White House urging President Biden to stop trying to block the Youth v. Gov plaintiffs from their day in court.
I hope to see you there!
Written by Lawrence MacDonald @ClimateBoomer
Author of "Am I Too Old to Save the Planet? A Boomer's Guide to Climate Action." A Kirkus Star book.
