The linked article is entitled: "Trump could face the ‘biggest trial of the century’ — over climate change". Win, lose or draw, the 'Our Children's Trust"'s legal fight itself will have impacts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/01/trump-could-face-the-biggest-trial-of-the-century-over-climate-change/?utm_term=.d170c3477b4aExtract: "According to Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit representing the youth plaintiffs, a recent case management conference indicated that the case would likely go to trial by summer or early fall of 2017.
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“It’s been called the biggest trial of the century, and it is,” said Mary Wood, a law professor at the University of Oregon and expert in natural resources and public trust law. “Literally, when I say the planet is on the docket, it would be hard to imagine a more consequential trial, because the fossil fuel policies of the entire United States of America are going to confront the climate science put forth by the world’s best scientists. And never before has that happened.”
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But while May notes that “strictly speaking, legally, the [plaintiffs’] causes of action have legs,” the case’s pioneering nature may make it difficult to argue in court.
“The federal judiciary of the United States is not yet ready, by and large, to apply federal common law public trust doctrine and substantive due process to climate change,” he said. “I think it’s likely that the cases will be struck.”
But some experts are more optimistic. Wood, the University of Oregon law professor, feels that the case overcame its biggest challenge already when the motion to dismiss was denied. By declining to dismiss the lawsuit, the court was indicating that the plaintiffs do indeed have a right to sue the government over their constitutional right to a healthy environment in the context of the climate change threat — something that has never been done before.
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Still, this outcome could also be appealed by the new administration — and in any event that the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, May said, it would likely be “dead on arrival.”
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And even if the federal lawsuit fails, its effects could still reverberate in other ways. It’s opened up a new legal avenue for fighting climate change that may become more common in the future, May said."