ELR Citation: 56 ELR 20010
No(s). 1:25-cv-496 (W.D. Mich. Jan 24, 2026) (Beckering, J.)

A district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a challenge brought by the U.S. government seeking to preclude the state of Michigan from filing state-law claims against fossil fuel companies for climate change harms. The government argued the state might bring unspecified claims against defendants connected to the fossil fuel industry at an unspecified point in the future, and that a subset of those claims might be preempted by one or more federal laws, causing "a cascading series of injuries." The court found the government's claims were not ripe for review because they turned on contingent future events that might not occur as anticipated, or not at all, and failed to establish any significant practical harm from waiting for the contingencies to arise. It also found the government lacked standing because it failed to show an imminent, rather than conjectural or hypothetical, injury that was causally connected and fairly traceable to the challenged action. The court dismissed the suit.