The first-ever constitutional climate trial in the United States began Monday in a Montana courtroom after 16 residents, one as young as 5 years old, sued the state over claims it violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment.
The plaintiffs in Held v. Montana, led by the legal nonprofit organization Our Children’s Trust, are expected to argue that state legislators prioritized the fossil fuel industry over their climate futures and are demanding Montana, the nation’s fifth-largest coal producer and 12th-largest oil producer, take accountability.
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Roger Sullivan, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said in his opening statement that the state has a contractual obligation to protect its residents, while Montana Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell said that climate change was a global issue and can’t be traced back to Montana.
If District Court Judge Kathy Seeley sides with the plaintiffs and finds the state’s support for the fossil fuel industry is unconstitutional, it could put legal pressure on the government and serve as a warning shot to other states to become more environmentally cognizant. Our Children’s Trust has undertaken legal action on the climate issue in every single state in the country.
Among other things, the plaintiffs in the Montana case, ranging in age from 5 to 22, will say the state’s inaction has prevented them from having access to clean water, sustaining family ranches, and creating important memories.
“It’s hard to watch the things that I love get depleted slowly, like fishing with my dad,” 15-year-old plaintiff Badge Busse, told Montana Public Radio. “It’s like, my main way to hang out with him and my brother.”
Experts are expected to testify that farmers have been financially harmed by drought and extreme weather events like the floods in Yellowstone National Park as proof that residents have been denied their right to a clean environment.
Experts for the state will likely downplay those effects and point to Montana’s “minuscule” contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, the Associated Press reported.
The historic case hinges on the legal language in Montana’s 1972 constitution that guarantees a “clean and healthful environment.” Similar environmental protections exist in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
“This will be the first case that really is being robustly pursued purely on the grounds of the right to a safe climate and that being a constitutionally protected entitlement,” Maya van Rossum, founder of the Green Amendment for the Generations, told Bloomberg Law, adding that the case sets a “powerful precedent.”
Nineteen-year-old plaintiff Grace Gibson-Snyder called the case “one big opportunity for the state to become a leader in preserving a safe, beautiful, and prosperous future for Montana.
“We’re asking the government and the courts to do their job and protect us, along with the rest of Montana’s citizens and our incredible home state,” she said.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are also expected to use their time over the next two weeks calling out state officials who have sought out oil, gas, and coal development.
The trial comes on the heels of the state’s Republican-led legislature passing measures favoring the fossil fuel industry, including one that prohibits state regulators from considering the effect on the climate when weighing large projects like new power plants and mining.
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Lawyers for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen have tried repeatedly to block the case from going to trial. Montana’s Supreme Court rejected the state’s latest attempt last week, ruling that justices would not intervene days before the start of the trial that has been “years in the making.”
