In re Juliana

The youth plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to determine whether the Ninth Circuit exceeded its jurisdiction when it granted the federal government’s petition for a writ of mandamus and directed the district court to dismiss the plaintiffs’ lawsuit. The plaintiffs argued that the Ninth Circuit failed to apply three conditions prescribed by the Supreme Court for determining whether a writ of mandamus may issue and that, in doing so, the Ninth Circuit “divested the district court of its inherent discretion … to grant leave to amend and review thereof under an abuse of discretion standard” and denied the plaintiffs “any right of appellate review of their amended complaint.” The plaintiffs contended that they were entitled to a writ of mandamus because their petition satisfied the three conditions: (1) their right was “clear and indisputable” because the Ninth Circuit had deprived them of rights under federal court rules; (2) they had no other right of appeal; and (3) granting the writ was appropriate to correct the “exceptional circumstances” of the Ninth Circuit panel’s disruption of the judicial hierarchy.