Judge Rejects Climate Suit to Establish 'Right to Wilderness'

Marlo Lewis, Jr. • August 2, 2019

Oregon District Court Judge Michael McShane on July 31st rejected a petition by two nonprofit groups—Animal Legal Defense Fund and Seeding Sovereignty—and six individuals who allege the U.S. government’s failure to combat climate change violates their constitutional right to a safe and sustainable environment. Plaintiffs claim climate change is damaging the health, beauty, and accessibility of wilderness areas. They ask the Court to order federal agencies to protect their “constitutional right to wilderness” by phasing out fossil fuel extraction, animal agriculture, and logging of old-growth forests.

The Judge tossed out the suit on two main grounds.

First, petitioners lack standing to sue. To have standing, plaintiffs must not only show they have suffered an “injury-in-fact” but also that the injury is “concrete and particularized” rather than a “generalized grievance.” However, plaintiffs’ “allegations are, by their very nature, generalized grievances.” Indeed, even if there were a recognized constitutional right to wilderness, “it would necessarily be a right held in common by all citizens, and the effects of climate change would be an abstract injury that all citizens share.”............To Read More......