The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral argument on January 19, 2021 in fossil fuel companies’ appeal of a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirming an order remanding to state court the City of Baltimore’s climate change case against the companies. On January 8, the Court granted the Acting Solicitor General’s motion for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae in support of the companies. The companies identified the question for review as whether the statutory provision prescribing the scope of appellate review of remand orders “permits a court of appeals to review any issue encompassed in a district court’s order remanding a removed case to state court where the removing defendant premised removal in part on the federal-officer removal statute, 28 U.S.C. 1442, or the civil-rights removal statute, 28 U.S.C. 1443.” In its brief filed on December 16, Baltimore defined the question as whether the statutory provision “entitles a defendant, by including a meritless federal-officer or civil-rights ground for federal jurisdiction in a removal petition, to appellate review of every ground for removal rejected by the district court’s remand order.” The district court rejected eight grounds for removal, but the Fourth Circuit concluded its appellate jurisdiction was limited to determining whether the companies properly removed the case under the federal-officer removal statute. In December, six amicus briefs were filed in support of Baltimore—by state and local government groups, environmental groups, six senators, law professors who teach and write on civil procedure and the federal courts, 19 states and the District of Columbia, and Boulder County, San Miguel County, and the City of Boulder in Colorado.

City of Baltimore lawsuit seeking to hold fossil fuel companies liable for climate change impacts.

BP p.l.c. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore

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Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Scope of Appellate Review of Remand Orders in Baltimore Case

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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

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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

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

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Scope of Appellate Review of Remand Orders in Baltimore Case

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