Youth Plaintiffs Urge Ninth Circuit to Reinstate Constitutional Climate Case Challenging Federal Fossil Fuel Orders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2026
Contacts:
Julia Olson, Chief Legal Counsel, 415.786.4825, julia@ourchildrenstrust.org
Helen Britto, Communications Director, 925.588.1171, helen@ourchildrenstrust.org
Nicole Funaro, Media Relations Strategist, nfunaro@publicjustice.net
PORTLAND, Ore. — Youth plaintiffs from across the United States appeared today before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Lighthiser v. Trump, urging the Court to reverse a lower court decision dismissing their constitutional lawsuit about the executive abuse of power, fossil fuel pollution, and climate change, and to allow their claims to proceed on the merits.
During approximately 45 minutes of oral argument, lead counsel to the plaintiffs and Co-Executive Director of Our Children’s Trust, Julia Olson, argued that the district court erred in dismissing the case despite detailed allegations and a developed evidentiary record demonstrating ongoing and escalating harm to the youth plaintiffs.
Olson told the Ninth Circuit that this case goes to the heart of whether courts will do their constitutional job when a president acts beyond the law. She argued that the district court wrongly treated the youth plaintiffs’ injuries as beyond judicial repair, even though they are asking for the kind of traditional relief courts grant every day: a declaration that the Executive Orders are unlawful and an injunction stopping their implementation. She emphasized that this case is not about asking the judiciary to solve the entire climate crisis, but about stopping three specific Executive Orders that unlawfully rewrite national energy laws toward more fossil fuels, more pollution, and greater harm to young people. And she made clear that when a president tries to override Congress and put children’s lives and health at greater risk, the courts have both the power and the responsibility to act.
“This case is about whether courts will do their constitutional job when a president acts beyond the law,” said Julia Olson, Chief Legal Counsel and Co-Executive Director of Our Children’s Trust. “Our clients are asking for the kind of relief courts grant every day. They are asking the court to declare these Executive Orders unlawful and to stop actions that are driving ongoing harm to children. This is not about asking the judiciary to solve the climate crisis, but about ensuring that unlawful executive action does not continue to put young people’s lives and health at risk.”
The youth plaintiffs are asking the Ninth Circuit to reinstate the case so they can proceed to trial and fully present their evidence that federal actions expanding fossil fuel development, suppressing clean energy, and restricting access to climate science violate their constitutional rights to life and liberty. On the other side, the U.S. Department of Justice argued that federal courts are precluded from hearing cases where harms arise from climate change.
The appeal follows two days of evidentiary proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in September 2025, where the court heard live testimony from youth plaintiffs and expert witnesses documenting the real and immediate harms caused by the Executive Orders. It was the first time in U.S. history that youth plaintiffs in a constitutional climate case presented live testimony in federal court.
The district court’s dismissal came despite extensive factual findings that underscored the seriousness of the harms caused by the Executive Orders. In its ruling, the Court found that the plaintiffs had presented “overwhelming evidence” that climate change is already causing them concrete injury and will continue to do so, and it expressly recognized that fossil fuel pollution is driving what it described as a “children’s health emergency.”
The Court further concluded that the challenged executive actions would significantly increase carbon emissions and worsen those harms, finding that they would make a “meaningful contribution” to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Although the Court acknowledged both the injuries and the government’s role in exacerbating them, it dismissed the case on procedural grounds, stating that it was bound by controlling precedent and reaching its decision “reluctantly,” while signaling that higher courts could allow the case to proceed.
Plaintiff Eva Lighthiser said, “We came to court and told the truth about how these Executive Orders are harming our lives. The court acknowledged that we are facing a children’s health emergency but still said it could not grant us relief. Today, we asked the Ninth Circuit to do what the judiciary is meant to do: protect our rights. The executive branch’s actions are putting us in danger, and many of us are too young to vote or participate in the political process, so we are turning to the courts to ensure our constitutional protections are upheld.”
“There are 757 lawsuits against the Trump administration — this is the only lawsuit that challenges how Trump’s executive orders are violating youth constitutional rights,” said Haley Nicholson, attorney for Public Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Project. “The Trump administration’s Executive Orders threaten to rob these plaintiffs of their health and safety, and shorten their natural life spans just to make more money off of oil. Our constitution set up a delicate system of checks and balances to ensure that no one branch assumes too much power. Courts are the primary check of the executive’s abuse of power and are the only check when Congress refuses to act. Congress has not checked President Trump’s power. The courts are all that’s left. The lives and liberties of these youth plaintiffs are at stake — the court should not abdicate its constitutionally-mandated role.”
A decision from the Ninth Circuit is expected in the coming months.
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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