For years, advocates for American energy have sounded the alarm on “climate lawfare”: the use of courts to impose energy policy that could never survive a vote in Congress. California alone has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against U.S. oil and gas companies, seeking to hold them liable for global greenhouse gas emissions.

Now, finally, a moment of common sense. A California judge has paused those lawsuits pending U.S. Supreme Court review anticipated in 2027. At the center: Do individual states have the authority to regulate global emissions, or does federal law govern interstate and international activity?