Using Issue Certification Against a Defendant Class to Establish Causation in Climate Change Litigation
Efforts to hold major greenhouse gas emitters accountable for the harms caused by global climate change have been consistently frustrated at the procedural stages of litigation in U.S. federal courts. This Article explores using a combination of class action mechanisms to engage with these threshold barriers and hold carbon-major corporations responsible for climate impacts.
California Chamber of Commerce v. Council for Education and Research on Toxics
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court order granting a nonprofit business group's motion to preliminarily enjoin California's attorney general from filing or prosecuting new lawsuits to enforce the state's Proposition 65 warning requirement for cancer as applied to acrylamide in food and bever...
Louisiana v. Biden
The Fifth Circuit granted the Biden Administration's motion to stay a district court ruling enjoining federal agencies from implementing interim estimates on the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions. States had argued the president lacked authority to promulgate and enforce the estimates; that th...
Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Healey
The Second Circuit affirmed in part and dismissed in part a district court ruling in a lawsuit brought by an oil company against the New York and Massachusetts attorneys general. The company had argued the states' investigations into the company's allegedly deceptive speech concerning climate change...