Komor v. United States

A pro se plaintiff filed a lawsuit in federal court in Arizona against the United States, the President, and federal agencies and officials asserting that he and other class action plaintiffs were suffering from “immediate and threatened injuries” due to the defendants’ actions and inaction supporting the production and consumption of fossil fuels. The complaint asserted violations of due process, equal protection, and the public trust doctrine. The complaint also alleged that the defendants infringed on unenumerated rights protected by the Ninth Amendment, which the complaint said included “the right to be sustained by our country’s vital natural systems, including our climate system.” The plaintiff asked the court to order the defendants to prepare a consumption-based inventory of carbon dioxide emissions; to implement a “national remedial plan” to phase out fossil fuel emissions (“like that described in the congressional resolution “Green New Deal”); and to fund, research, and operationalize a methodology for “active atmospheric carbon removal.” The complaint alleged that direct atmospheric carbon removal was the “only effective relief” the plaintiff could request because “replacing or augmenting environmental protections, as requested by Juliana v. USA” would not be sufficient “to avoid the fast approaching mid-2030’s climate deadline with its grave and irreparably catastrophic effects on human life.”