Overview

• The two-day hearing in Missoula features live, cross-examined climate testimony in a federal courtroom from youth plaintiffs and expert witnesses.
• Plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction to block three executive orders declaring a national energy emergency, accelerating drilling and prioritizing coal, while also alleging the sidelining of federal climate science.
• The Justice Department and a coalition of 19 states plus Guam have moved to dismiss the suit, and the government is calling no witnesses as plaintiffs plan to call scientists and former White House official John Podesta.
• U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen is presiding, and any decision is expected to face appeals, with analysts citing the absence of a federal constitutional right to a clean environment and the Supreme Court’s rejection of prior youth cases.
• Government lawyers contend energy policy belongs to elected branches, as the youths testify to harms from wildfire smoke, heat and flooding that they argue threaten their rights to life and liberty.