Juliana v. United States

Decision Date10 November 2016
Docket NumberCase No. 6:15–cv–01517–TC
Citation217 F.Supp.3d 1224
Parties Kelsey Cascadia Rose JULIANA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, et al, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of Oregon

Julia A. Olson, Wild Earth Advocates, Daniel M. Galpern, Law Offices of Daniel M. Galpern, Eugene, OR, Philip L. Gregory, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, Burlingame, CA, for Plaintiffs.

Sean C. Duffy, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

AIKEN, Judge:1

Plaintiffs in this civil rights action are a group of young people between the ages of eight and nineteen ("youth plaintiffs"); Earth Guardians, an association of young environmental activists; and Dr. James Hansen, acting as guardian for future generations.2 Plaintiffs filed this action against defendants the United States, President Barack Obama, and numerous executive agencies. Plaintiffs allege defendants have known for more than fifty years that the carbon dioxide ("CO2") produced by burning fossil fuels was destabilizing the climate system in a way that would "significantly endanger plaintiffs, with the damage persisting for millenia." First. Am. Compl. ¶ 1. Despite that knowledge, plaintiffs assert defendants, "[b]y their exercise of sovereign authority over our country's atmosphere and fossil fuel resources, ... permitted, encouraged, and otherwise enabled continued exploitation, production, and combustion of fossil fuels, ... deliberately allow[ing] atmospheric CO2concentrations to escalate to levels unprecedented in human history[.]" Id. ¶ 5. Although many different entities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, plaintiffs aver defendants bear "a higher degree of responsibility than any other individual, entity, or country" for exposing plaintiffs to the dangers of climate change. Id. ¶ 7. Plaintiffs argue defendants' actions violate their substantive due process rights to life, liberty, and property, and that defendants have violated their obligation to hold certain natural resources in trust for the people and for future generations.

Plaintiffs assert there is a very short window in which defendants could act to phase out fossil fuel exploitation and avert environmental catastrophe. They seek (1) a declaration their constitutional and public trust rights have been violated and (2) an order enjoining defendants from violating those rights and directing defendants to develop a plan to reduce CO2emissions.

Defendants moved to dismiss this action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. Doc. 27. Intervenors the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, and the American Petroleum Institute moved to dismiss on the same grounds. Doc. 19. After oral argument, Magistrate Judge Coffin issued his Findings and Recommendation ("F & R") and recommended denying the motions to dismiss. Doc. 68. Judge Coffin then referred the matter to me for review pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636 and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72. Doc. 69. Defendants and intervenors filed objections (docs. 73 & 74), and on September 13, 2016, this Court heard oral argument.

For the reasons set forth below, I adopt Judge Coffin's F & R as elaborated in this opinion and deny the motions to dismiss.

BACKGROUND

This is no ordinary lawsuit. Plaintiffs challenge the policies, acts, and omissions of the President of the United States, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation ("DOT"), the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"). This lawsuit challenges decisions defendants have made across a vast set of topics—decisions like whether and to what extent to regulate CO2emissions from power plants and vehicles, whether to permit fossil fuel extraction and development to take place on federal lands, how much to charge for use of those lands, whether to give tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry, whether to subsidize or directly fund that industry, whether to fund the construction of fossil fuel infrastructure such as natural gas pipelines at home and abroad, whether to permit the export and import of fossil fuels from and to the United States, and whether to authorize new marine coal terminal projects. Plaintiffs assert defendants' decisions on these topics have substantially caused the planet to warm and the oceans to rise. They draw a direct causal line between defendants' policy choices and floods, food shortages, destruction of property, species extinction, and a host of other harms.

This lawsuit is not about proving that climate change is happening or that human activity is driving it. For the purposes of this motion, those facts are undisputed.3 The questions before the Court are whether defendants are responsible for some of the harm caused by climate change, whether plaintiffs may challenge defendants' climate change policy in court, and whether this Court can direct defendants to change their policy without running afoul of the separation of powers doctrine.

STANDARDS

The Magistrates Act authorizes a district court to "accept, reject or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate judge." 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). When a party objects to any portion of the magistrate's findings and recommendation, the district court must review de novo that portion of the magistrate judge's report. Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(3) ; see also McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Commodore Bus. Machs., Inc. , 656 F.2d 1309, 1313 (9th Cir. 1981) (for dispositive motions, "the statute grants the broadest possible discretion to the reviewing district court").

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), a district court must dismiss an action if subject matter jurisdiction is lacking. A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(1) may attack either the allegations of the complaint or the "existence of subject matter in fact." Thornhill Publ'g Co., Inc. v. Gen. Tel. & Elec. Corp. , 594 F.2d 730, 733 (9th Cir. 1979). The party seeking to invoke the district court's jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing subject matter jurisdiction. Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am. , 511 U.S. 375, 377, 114 S.Ct. 1673, 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994).

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), a complaint is construed in favor of the plaintiff, and its factual allegations are taken as true. Daniels–Hall v. Nat'I Educ. Ass'n , 629 F.3d 992, 998 (9th Cir. 2010), However, the court need not accept as true "conclusory" allegations or unreasonable inferences. Id. Thus, "for a complaint to survive a motion to dismiss, the non-conclusory factual content, and reasonable inferences from that content, must be plausibly suggestive of a claim entitling the plaintiff to relief." Moss v. U.S. Secret Serv. , 572 F.3d 962, 969 (9th Cir. 2009) (quotation marks omitted). "A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). "[O]nce a claim has been stated adequately, it may be supported by showing any set of facts consistent with the allegations in the complaint." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 563, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).

DISCUSSION

Judge Coffin recommended denying defendants' and intervenors' motions to dismiss and holding that plaintiffs' public trust and due process claims may proceed. Defendants and intervenors object to those recommendations on a number of grounds. They contend plaintiffs' claims must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because the case presents non-justiciable political questions, plaintiffs lack standing to sue, and federal public trust claims cannot be asserted against the federal government. They further argue plaintiffs have failed to state a claim on which relief can be granted. I first address the threshold challenges to jurisdiction, and then proceed to address the viability of plaintiffs' due process and public trust claims.

I. Political Question

If a case presents a political question, federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction to decide that question. Corrie v. Caterpillar, Inc. , 503 F.3d 974, 982 (9th Cir. 2007). The political question doctrine is "primarily a function of the separation of powers." Baker v. Carr , 369 U.S. 186, 210, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). This limitation on the federal courts was recognized in Marbury v. Madison , 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 170, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803), in which Chief Justice Marshall wrote, "[q]uestions, in their nature political, or which are, by the constitution and laws, submitted to the executive, can never be made in this court." However, the scope of the political question doctrine should not be overstated. As Alexis de Tocqueviile observed, "[t]here is hardly any political question in the United States that sooner or later does not turn into a judicial question." 1 Alexis de Tocqueviile, Democracy in America 440 (Liberty Fund 2012).

In Baker , the Supreme Court identified six criteria, each of which could individually signal the presence of a political question:

[ (1) A] textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; [ (2) ] a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it; [ (3) ] the impossibility of deciding without an initial policy determination of a kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion; [ (4) ] the impossibility of a court's undertaking independent resolution without expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of government; [ (5) ] an unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made;
...

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  • Aji P. v. State
    • United States
    • Washington Court of Appeals
    • February 8, 2021
    ...has ever held that there exists a fundamental right to a climate system capable of sustaining life. See Juliana v. United States (Juliana I), 217 F. Supp. 3d 1224, 1250 (D. Or. 2016) (holding that there is a fundamental right to a climate system capable of sustaining life), rev'd and remand......
  • Clean Air Council v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania
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    ...a single court has recognized a substantive due process right analogous to what Plaintiffs urge here. See Juliana v. United States, 217 F.Supp.3d 1224, 1248–50 (D. Or. 2016) (recognizing "the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life"). Yet, the Juliana Court certainly cont......
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    • U.S. District Court — Middle District of Louisiana
    • September 25, 2019
    ...States, No. 15-01517, 2017 WL 2483705 (D. Ore. June 8, 2017) in support of a purported "liberty right" to access drinking water. However, Juliana at this cite is a brief opinion by District Judge Aiken regarding motions for stay, certification for appeal, and expedited consideration of pend......
  • Juliana v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Oregon
    • October 15, 2018
    ...2016, the Court issued an opinion and order adopting Judge Coffin's F & R and denying the motions to dismiss. Juliana v. United States , 217 F.Supp.3d 1224, 1276 (D. Or. 2016).In January 2017, federal defendants filed their Answer. (doc. 98) They agreed with many of the scientific and factu......
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  • PRIVATIZATION, PUBLIC COMMONS, AND THE TAKINGSIFICATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW.
    • United States
    • University of Pennsylvania Law Review Vol. 171 No. 3, March 2023
    • March 1, 2023
    ...in which public and private interests overlap, such as the atmosphere, oceans, and biodiversity. See, e.g. .Juliana vs. United States, 217 F. Supp. 3d 1224, 1253-55 (D. Or. 2016) (applying public trust principles of public commons ownership to the atmospheric commons), rev'd on other ground......
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    • January 1, 2020
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    • United States
    • Suffolk University Law Review Vol. 55 No. 2, March 2022
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    ...would deprive future legislatures from the natural resources necessary to provide for U.S. citizens. See Juliana v. United States, 217 F. Supp. 3d 1224, 1253 (D. Or. 2016), rev'd, 947 F.3d 1159 (9th Cir. (108.) See Burger, supra note 73, at 168 (comparing global GHG emissions from historic ......
  • FLINT OF OUTRAGE.
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    ...can navigate the shoals of constitutionalizing "thick" environmental rights, if motivated to do so. (277) Juliana v. United States, 217 F. Supp. 3d 1224, 1250 (D. Or. (278) As Justice Harlan noted in Poe v. Ullman, This 'liberty' [guaranteed by the Due Process Clause] is not a series of iso......
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