As the Supreme Court prepares to hear Suncor v. Boulder, a once-local climate lawsuit is packed with threats to the First Amendment lurking just below the waterline. At stake is not simply whether federal law preempts state tort claims arising from climate change, but whether state and local governments may use those claims to punish disfavored speakers for what they said about fossil fuels, climate policy, and their own place in the national economy.

If that theory survives, it will not remain confined to energy companies — it will open the way to regulate everyone’s speech.