The Our Children’s Trust lawsuit against the government concerning the continued use of subsidies to buttress the fossil fuels industry, known as Juliana v. United States, presented its arguments to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit back in June. The counter-arguments advanced by the government, both under Obama and now Trump, is as follows:
In briefs to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco wrote that “the assertion of sweeping new fundamental rights to certain climate conditions has no basis in the nation’s history and tradition — and no place in federal court.”
Even before Tuesday, lawyers in two administrations had made similar arguments in lower courts. But again and again, judges allowed the case to proceed. [WaPo]
While I certainly shouldn’t be commenting on the Francisco’s claim these are new rights – although I’ll note that this sounds more like a pollution case that perhaps the government should like – it seems to me there’s a rebuttal right there in the Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, …
That the general Welfare is mentioned as a motivation for the Constitution makes it a responsibility of the government; that an action of the government, namely the subsidization of the fossil fuel industry, is having a deleterious and, if not yet, soon a substantial impact on the Welfare of the people, makes that action illegal.
By fighting this lawsuit, both Obama and Trump seem to be saying that they have a right to take actions which harm large parts of the nation. That’s not right. If they were fighting this on some sort of technical grounds, I might understand their point. After all, the power of the purse resides with the Legislature, so perhaps they’d have been a more natural target, but maybe they cannot be sued. In any case, in this the Executives (Obama and Trump) seem to be denying their very responsibility to keep the Nation safe not only from foreign powers, but from our own disastrous actions.
It’s disappointing. Stop the subsidies now.
