Miko Vergun, a plaintiff in the landmark 2015 federal youth climate lawsuit Juliana v. United States, which questioned the constitutionality of 50 years of government support for fossil fuels, wasn’t surprised on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term when he issued three executive orders meant to clear the way for the drilling of more oil and gas and the mining of more coal in the name of energy security. She was nevertheless “disheartened” that her government planned to redouble its support of fossil fuels even in light of the harm climate change was causing.
Then three months later, she learned that the U.S. Supreme Court would not reconsider its 2020 dismissal of Juliana — after a decade, her case was over. “After Juliana, truthfully, I had given up hope,” she told Grist.
The Juliana case was the first in a series of lawsuits brought by the nonprofit law firm Our Children’s Trust on behalf of youth plaintiffs. In August 2023, they won their case against Montana, which argued for a “fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful ... Read more
