A federal court of appeals has sided with the Justice Department and dismissed Juliana v. United States, a historic youth climate lawsuit against the U.S. government. The decision was made by a panel of three Trump-appointed judges from the 9th Circuit. The group who brought the case, Our Children’s Trust, is calling on the full court to reconsider the ruling and on the American public to contact the Biden administration to demand it stop persecuting climate activism. Kelsey Juliana, the named plaintiff in the case, spoke to Democracy Now! in 2019.
Kelsey Juliana: “So we’re looking at the ways that the federal government has very knowingly and willfully funded this climate crisis. And the way that they are continuing to stall and delay our climate case shows you exactly their priorities, their priorities of their own self-interests and continuing this greedy fossil fuel economy rather than ensuring the constitutional rights of life, liberty and property to all citizens, especially young.”