What’s at Stake
Whether the Environmental Protection Agency may rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the legal foundation for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, and thereby eliminate critical protections against climate pollution.
Summary
Public Justice will represent youth petitioners, including Laurel Reed Funk, Linnea Lentfer, Maya Alejandra Williams, and Jonna Gillham, in a constitutional challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s rescission of the 2009 Endangerment Finding.
Issued in 2009, the Endangerment Finding concluded that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare, requiring the EPA to regulate those emissions under the Clean Air Act. For more than sixteen years, this finding has served as the legal basis for major federal protections addressing climate pollution, including vehicle emissions standards and power plant regulations.
In July 2025, the EPA proposed rescinding the Endangerment Finding, relying on scientific conclusions that Petitioners contend are unsupported. Once finalized, the rescission would remove the EPA’s basis for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act and is expected to result in increased greenhouse gas emissions. Petitioners allege that these increased emissions will worsen the climate crisis by contributing to more frequent and severe extreme weather events and by threatening clean air, stable coastlines, natural weather patterns, and a livable climate.
The youth Petitioners allege they are particularly vulnerable to these harms because they will bear the long-term consequences of increased climate pollution. They contend the rescission threatens their health, safety, bodily integrity, ability to pursue happiness, practice cultural and religious traditions, and enjoy a livable future.
The lawsuit will challenge the rescission under the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, arguing that the action unlawfully infringes Petitioners’ constitutional rights and denies young people equal protection of the law. Petitioners also contend that EPA exceeded the authority delegated to it by Congress in rescinding the Endangerment Finding.
Core Legal Questions
The case asks whether EPA’s rescission of the 2009 Endangerment Finding violates the United States Constitution by threatening fundamental constitutional interests of youth plaintiffs and denying them equal protection of the laws.
The case also asks whether EPA exceeded the authority delegated to it by Congress in rescinding the Endangerment Finding, thereby violating constitutional separation-of-powers principles.