United States v. U.S. District Court for District of Oregon

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on March 7 that the United States and other federal petitioners had not met the “high bar” for the appellate court to order a district court to dismiss the climate change lawsuit brought by 21 young people in the District of Oregon. The Ninth Circuit found that the issues raised by the petitioners—the threat of burdensome discovery and concerns regarding separation of powers—were “better addressed through the ordinary course of litigation.” The Ninth Circuit said the request for relief from potentially burdensome discovery was “entirely premature” because the district court had not issued a single discovery order and the plaintiffs had not filed a single motion to compel discovery. The Ninth Circuit also said it was “not persuaded that simply allowing the usual legal processes to go forward” would threaten the separation of powers. The opinion noted that Congress had not exempted the government from the normal rules of appellate procedure, “which anticipate that sometimes defendants will incur burdens of litigating cases that lack merit but still must wait for the normal appeals process to contest rulings against them.” In addition, the Ninth Circuit found that the conceded absence of controlling precedent weighed strongly against finding clear error in the district court’s denial of the motion to dismiss. The Ninth Circuit also said that the novelty of the issues presented did not warrant the relief sought because the denial of the motion to dismiss did not present a risk that the issues would evade appellate review.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals scheduled oral argument for Monday, December 11 on the United States’ petition for writ of mandamus seeking to bar the climate lawsuit filed by young people and “future generations” from proceeding in federal district court in Oregon. In November 2016, the district court denied motions to dismiss the action, allowing public trust and due process claims to proceed. After unsuccessfully seeking permission for interlocutory appeal, the United States filed the petition for writ of mandamus, arguing that the district court committed clear error in denying the motions to dismiss and was acting outside its jurisdiction.

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On July 28, 2017, the Ninth Circuit ordered the real parties in interest (the plaintiffs in the district court action) to file a response within 30 days to the United States' petition for writ of mandamus. The Ninth Circuit directed the parties to “address the status of all current discovery requests; report all pending discovery deadlines; and identify any ongoing or expected discovery disputes.” The Ninth Circuit also said the parties should address whether the real parties in interest’s constitutional challenge to Section 201 of the Energy Policy Act was within the district court’s jurisdiction. (Section 201 concerns authorization of imports and exports of natural gas. In its petition, the United States contended that the plaintiffs’ claim regarding an export authorization for an Oregon liquefied natural gas terminal was “indisputably” beyond the district court’s jurisdiction because exclusive jurisdiction was vested in the courts of appeals.) The Ninth Circuit order said the district court could also file a response if it desired to do so. The judges on the panel are Alfred T. Goodwin (Nixon appointee), Alex Kozinski (Reagan appointee), and Marsha S. Berzon (Clinton appointee).

On July 25, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily stayed district court proceedings in the lawsuit brought by a group of young people and “future generations” in federal district court in Oregon alleging that the federal government had violated their constitutional rights by contributing to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The United States filed a petition for writ of mandamus and request for stay in the Ninth Circuit on June 9, 2017, arguing that the district court’s denial of its motion to dismiss the lawsuit was based on clear error.

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