Held lawsuit plaintiffs file climate change lawsuit against Trump, federal agencies

Yahoo

2 days ago

Glenns Lake in Glacier National Park (Photo by Jeff Pang via Glacier National Park and Flickr | CC-BY-SA 2.0).
Twenty-two young plaintiffs, led by a contingent of Montanans who earned a landmark victory in the constitutional climate change lawsuit Held v. Montana, filed suit in U.S. District Court on Thursday against the federal government over a series of climate and energy policies.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Lighthiser v. Trump, argue three of Trump's executive orders issued earlier this year to 'unleash' the fossil fuel industry and remove climate protections threaten their constitutional rights to life and liberty.
'President Trump's EOs falsely claim an energy emergency, while the true emergency is that fossil fuel pollution is destroying the foundation of Plaintiffs' lives,' the lawsuit states. 'These unconstitutional directives have the immediate effect of slowing the buildout of U.S. energy infrastructure that eliminates planet-heating fossil fuel greenhouse gas pollution … and increasing the use of fossil fuels that pollute the air, water, lands, and climate on which Plaintiffs' lives depend.'
The lead plaintiff, 19-year-old Eva Lighthiser, from Livingston, is one of several Montana plaintiffs who also filed the landmark Held case, which prevailed in Montana District Court and, in late 2024, in the Montana Supreme Court. Lighthiser is joined in the suit by Rikki Held, Lander and Badge Busse — sons of former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ryan Busse — and five others from the Montana lawsuit, as well as young people from Hawai'i, Oregon, California, and Florida.
Plaintiffs from Hawai'i were also involved in a successful youth-led climate lawsuit against the state's Department of Transportation.
During a seven-day bench trial before Lewis and Clark District Court Judge Kathy Seeley in 2023, Held and 15 youth plaintiffs were found to have a right to a stable climate system under Montana's constitutional right to a 'clean and healthful environment.'
The Held decision, affirmed by the state Supreme Court in December, is mentioned numerous times in the Lighthiser case, and several of the same law firms are representing the plaintiffs in the new suit.
Eleven federal agencies and their respective agency heads, including the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA, are named as defendants along with the president.
Three of Trump's executive orders — 14156, 14154 and 14261 — declare a 'national energy emergency' and direct numerous federal agencies to 'unleash American energy' by accelerating oil, gas and coal production on federal lands, and bolster fossil fuel development. They also roll back funding that bolstered climate protections, including through the Inflation Reduction Act. Various clean energy grant programs, including wind, solar battery storage and electric vehicles, were also targeted in the orders.
The 126-page complaint argues that the federal directives threaten the plaintiffs' health and wellbeing by accelerating harms from the fossil fuel industry and climate change.
'Plaintiffs were born into and now live in a destabilized climate system. Fossil fuel pollution has created this emergency—a dangerous situation for Plaintiffs requiring immediate action,' the suit states. '… EPA reports that climate change effects, including heat, displacement, financial or food insecurity, loss of recreation, loss of sleep, and risk of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), harm children's health.'
The plaintiffs are asking for the court to find the three executive orders 'and any implementing executive actions' unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid, and seek a permanent injunction against implementing and enforcing the orders.
In a statement, Deputy White House press secretary Harrison Fields said the executive orders are part of President Donald Trump's efforts to protect Americans.
'Promoting domestic energy production is crucial for shielding American families from price volatility and securing a stable energy supply for our nation and its allies. The President has a proven history of bolstering American energy production and will restore our nation's position as a global energy leader,' Fields said in a statement.
A representative for the Department of Justice declined to comment.
In a press release about the lawsuit, Lighthiser said Trump's executive orders amount to a 'death sentence for my generation.'
'I'm not suing because I want to — I'm suing because I have to. My health, my future, and my right to speak the truth are all on the line. He's waging war on us with fossil fuels as his weapon, and we're fighting back with the Constitution.'
In the suit, the plaintiffs list harms experienced in their young lives related to climate change, including from longer wildfire seasons that affect their health, increasingly extreme weather patterns that affect their livelihoods, and changes to their local environments and cultural homes. The suit also mentions the executive orders' effect on decreasing career opportunities for some plaintiffs, through canceled climate science research and study programs.
The complaint also condemns the federal government's directives to implement the executive orders by 'a wholesale scrubbing, suppression and dismantling of government agencies' climate science, thereby blinding the government,' and argues that the President exceeded his constitutional and statutory authority— 'acting ultra vires' — in issuing the executive orders.
The youth are represented by Our Children's Trust, an Oregon-based law firm, along with Gregory Law Group, McGarvey Law in Kalispell, and Public Justice.
l'These young plaintiffs refuse to be collateral damage in a fossil fuel war on their future,' lead attorney Julia Olson of Our Children's Trust said in a press release. 'They are demanding accountability where it still matters—in a court of law. The executive branch is not above the Constitution, and these young people are here to prove it.'