Thirteen Montana youth filed a petition for original jurisdiction in the Montana Supreme Court alleged that 2025 amendments to the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and the Montana Clean Air Act were unconstitutional under the court’s December 2024 ruling in <a href="https://www.climatecasechart.com/collections/held-v-state_2e16b7">Held v. State</a>. The youth petitioners, who also were plaintiffs in Held v. State, argued in the petition that the 2025 amendments violated their fundamental rights to a clean and healthful environment under the Montana Constitution and Held because they “re-blindfold state agencies during MEPA reviews of fossil fuel projects” and unlawfully restrict the prevention and abatement of greenhouse gas air pollution. The petitioners argued that their petition justified an original proceeding before the Montana Supreme Court because (1) it presented an issue of statewide importance due to “ongoing state-wide harms from fossil fuel air pollution,” together with “the high-volume of MEPA reviews” conducted each year; (2) the enactment and implementation of the amendments was “plainly contrary to binding precedent,” including Held; (3) the constitutionality of the amendments presented purely legal questions; (4) “urgent resolution” was required because “every additional ton of GHG emissions emitted as a result of Respondents’ actions exacerbates Petitioners’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries”; and (5) respondents were currently engaged in reviews for large-scale fossil fuel projects and permits and in drafting a “GHG Guidance Document.” 

Youth plaintiffs' constitutional challenge to 2025 amendments to the Montana Environmental Policy Act and Montana Clean Air Act.

Held v. State

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Held v. State - petition

Filed

United States of America

Montana

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Codes and standards are regulatory instruments that specify minimum standards to protect health and safety. This ranges from performance standards, which prescribe outcomes while allowing flexibility to achieve compliance, to the more prescriptive approach of technology-specific standards.

Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Held v. State - petition

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector