The children are our future and when you see what a lot of old people are voting for—it rhymes with Donald Trump—we can only hope they get here sooner than later. Young people like Kelsey Juliana, who is the lead plaintiff in a civil rights action along with 20 other children between the ages of 8 and 19, are fighting to save us all from ourselves. They are suing the United States saying that their rights to a stable climate are being infringed upon by our government’s policies. In a decision a couple days after the election of Trump, the 21 plaintiffs won the right to go to trial.
The path was cleared by a federal district court judge in Oregon who wrote an opinion preliminarily finding that a stable climate is a fundamental constitutional right. In the groundbreaking decision, announced on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken ruled in favor of a group of 21 children and young adults in their suit against the federal government. In denying the government’s motion to dismiss, Aiken, based in Eugene, Oregon, opened a path for an eventual court-mandated, science-based plan to bring about sharp emissions reductions in the United States. The case, Juliana v. United States, will now go to trial starting sometime in 2017 and could prove to be a major civil rights suit, eventually finding its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“This is going to be the trial of our lifetimes,” said Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a 16-year-old plaintiff, in a statement.
There will be nothing but obstacles in their way but they are young and U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken is in their corner.
Defendants and intervenors contend plaintiffs are asserting a right to be free from pollution or climate change, and that courts have consistently rejected attempts to define such rights as fundamental. Defendants and intervenors mischaracterize the right plaintiffs assert. Plaintiffs do not object to the government's role in producing any pollution or in causing any climate change; rather, they assett the government has caused pollution and climate change on a catastrophic level, and that if the government's actions continue unchecked, they will permanently and irreversibly damage plaintiffs' propetty, their economic livelihood, their recreational opp01tunities, their health, and ultimately their (and their children's) ability to live long, healthy lives. Echoing Obergefell's reasoning, plaintiffs allege a stable climate system is a necessaty condition to exercising other rights to life, liberty, and property.
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"A strong and independent judiciary is the cornerstone of our libe1iies." These words, spoken by Oregon Senator Mark 0. Hatfield, are etched into the walls of the Portland United States comihouse for the District of Oregon. The words appear on the first floor, a daily reminder that it is "emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." Marbwy, 5 U.S. at 177. Even when a case implicates hotly contested political issues, the judiciary must not shrink from its role as a coequal branch of government.
These young people are trying to save their future and relieve us of our dark past.
If you want learn a little more about “Our Children’s Trust” and the lawsuit, watch below.