Plaintiffs from Juliana v. United States. Photo courtesy of Our Children's Trust.
By Susan Messer
Youth v. Gov is a term that embraces the multiple legal campaigns of young people around the world who are suing their governments to seek climate justice. Youth v. Gov is the mission of Our Children’s Trust (OCT)—a nonprofit public interest law firm in Eugene, Oregon, dedicated to securing a healthy atmosphere and safe climate for our young people—and at no cost to the youth or their families. Youth v. Gov is also a hashtag (#youthvgov), and it is the title of a documentary that was shown in the 2021 One Earth Film Festival.
The film Youth v Gov is the story of Juliana v. United States, the legal case filed by Our Children’s Trust in 2015. In Juliana, 21 plaintiffs from 9 states sued the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty, personal safety, and property. Their claim is that through its willful actions, the U.S. government has created and is continuing to create the climate crisis these young people will inherit.
In the years since Juliana was filed, it has faced all the challenges, all the ups and the downs, you would expect a case of this significance to face. Complicated though the legal maneuvering may be, the young plaintiffs understand that their case is not about government inaction on climate change; it’s about scientific and archival evidence of actions the government has actively taken. That is, while knowing about the dangers of climate change for more than fifty years, the U.S. has pursued reckless and dangerous fossil fuel development, harming the health of our communities and threatening our futures.
In addition to Juliana, OCT has some form of climate actions in multiple U.S. states as well as around the planet—in Canada, Mexico, India, Pakistan, and Uganda, with additional global cases in development on several continents. One of its state lawsuits—Held v. State of Montana—is going to trial in June of 2023. This will be the first children’s climate trial in U.S. history, and it will be heard at the courthouse in Helena, Montana.
Here’s a brief overview of seven pending state lawsuits, starting with Held.
You can stay up to date on all these actions by signing up here. Our Children’s Trust is especially eager to have significant community and public support around the Held v. Montana trial in June, and they suggest many ways for all of us to do that, including planning a trip to Helena for June. Why not?