Young Americans Take Trump’s Unconstitutional Fossil Fuel Executive Orders to the Ninth Circuit
Contacts:
Julia Olson, Chief Legal Counsel, 415.786.4825, julia@ourchildrenstrust.org
Helen Britto, Communications Associate Director, 925.588.1171, helen@ourchildrenstrust.org
Nicole Funaro, Media Relations Strategist, nfunaro@publicjustice.net
Young Americans Take Trump’s Unconstitutional Fossil Fuel Executive Orders to the Ninth Circuit
MISSOULA, M.T. — Twenty-two young Americans are asking the Ninth Circuit to overturn a federal court ruling that blocked their constitutional right to life case, submitting their opening brief yesterday in Lighthiser v. Trump. The youth plaintiffs are challenging this administration’s 2025 executive orders that direct agencies to “unleash American energy” through fossil fuel development, accelerate oil, gas, and coal production on federal lands, block clean energy projects, and suppress public access to federal climate science.
The appeal follows a historic September evidentiary hearing — the first time in U.S. history that a federal court heard in-person testimony in a constitutional climate case led by young people — where the plaintiffs shared personal stories of wildfire evacuations, heat-related injuries, and threats to their lives, health, and futures. Based on the testimony, the district court found that fossil fuel exposure and climate change present a “children’s health emergency” and that the challenged executive orders will cause real-world injuries to the youth plaintiffs.
Experts in climate science, public health, economics, and renewable energy documented the direct link between government policies and the escalating harms faced by the youth, emphasizing that every additional ton of carbon emissions worsens these harms and that children are uniquely vulnerable to climate-related impacts. Their evidence made clear that the harms the youth face are real, preventable, and are worsened by these Executive Orders.
Specifically, if they prevail, they will stop up to 500 million metric tons of additional fossil fuel pollution annually from entering the air and remaining there for hundreds of years. It amounts to more pollution than the vast majority of countries emit in a year. Plaintiffs’ climate and health experts said that would be significant and prevent more harm to Plaintiffs’ bodies and minds. At the hearing, the experts also testified that wind and solar, energy this administration is blocking, are the cheapest forms of energy today and can reduce electric bills for ordinary people in addition to eliminating the enormous costs to plaintiffs and society of fossil fuel pollution.
The plaintiffs claim that the Executive Orders exceed the President’s legal authority and violate the Constitution by depriving children of their fundamental rights, including their right to life. Plaintiffs argue that the Montana federal court was wrong to dismiss their case and that courts have the power to block unlawful executive actions. They ask the Ninth Circuit to reverse the district court and allow the case to proceed to the merits of whether President Trump is violating the youths’ rights and overstepping his constitutional and statutory authority by directing executive agencies to unleash fossil fuels while blocking wind, solar, EVs, and climate programs mandated by Congress.
“The district court recognized that these Executive Orders are causing a children’s health emergency and directly harming the youth plaintiffs, but wrongly concluded it lacked the power to provide relief,” said Julia Olson, lead attorney to the plaintiffs. “President Trump’s orders cost these young plaintiffs their ability to live healthy lives. They also impose economic burdens on the plaintiffs and society at large by forcing fossil fuel energy and cars on us when the rest of the world understands that a healthy and prosperous future depends on wind, solar, and electric vehicles. The cost to our clients’ physical health and safety is enormous and can be remedied by the federal courts saying the President’s acts violate the U.S. Constitution.”
The plaintiffs — students, ranchers, scientists-in-training, and educators from Montana, Oregon, California, Hawai‘i, and Florida — have already experienced climate-related harms, including wildfire evacuations, respiratory injuries, water shortages, and mental health impacts. They contend that the Trump administration’s actions violate their Fifth Amendment rights and unlawfully override federal laws meant to protect public health and climate science.
“Our government has a system of checks and balances, and right now those checks have failed us,” said lead plaintiff Eva Lighthiser. “These executive orders are directly harming me and my fellow plaintiffs. Every additional wildfire, smoky day, and flood, puts our lives and health at risk. With this appeal, we have hope that the Ninth Circuit will uphold its constitutional duty to protect this nation’s young people.”
“The district court’s ruling wrongly allows the violations of the youth plaintiffs’ fundamental rights to continue unchecked,” said Haley Nicholson, attorney to the plaintiffs. “But as courts across the country have recently affirmed when dealing with the firehouse actions of the Trump administration, it is the traditional role of the courts to strike down unconstitutional actions. We ask the Ninth Circuit to affirm this bedrock principle, and allow the youth plaintiffs’ constitutional claims to be heard.”
If successful, the plaintiffs will move forward on the merits in the district court, seeking to declare the executive orders unconstitutional, block their implementation, and reaffirm that no president is above the Constitution.
The youth plaintiffs are represented by Our Children’s Trust, in partnership with Gregory Law Group, McGarvey Law, and Public Justice.
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Our Children’s Trust was founded in 2010 on the idea that courts are vital to democracy and empowered to protect our children and the planet. Without a stable climate system, every natural resource we rely upon to exercise our basic human rights—life, liberty, home, happiness—is under threat. Our work will be achieved when there is universal recognition of children’s climate rights by courts around the world and children’s fundamental rights to life on this planet are protected. www.ourchildrenstrust.org
Public Justice takes on the most significant systemic threats to justice of our time—abusive corporate power and predatory practices, the assault on civil rights and liberties, and the destruction of the earth’s sustainability. We link high-impact litigation with strategic communications and the strength of our partnerships to combat these abusive and discriminatory systems and achieve social and economic justice. For more information, visit www.publicjustice.net