Representing Montana youths in a fight for their future

Montana is one of only a handful of states that recognizes a constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment, including a stable climate. For decades, the state of Montana has promoted, incentivized, and deregulated the fossil fuel industry, knowingly worsening climate change. 

Beginning in 2020, we represented 16 young people in a challenge to the state of Montana’s fossil fuel permitting practices that threaten the state’s atmosphere, forests, rivers, lakes, fish, and wildlife. Elected officials’ climate denial and fealty to the fossil fuel industry have harmed these young people’s way of life and constitutional rights to pursue liberty and happiness through the enjoyment of a clean and healthful environment. We took on this case to hold Montana’s government accountable and defend these youths’ constitutional rights. 

Alongside our partners at Our Children’s Trust and McGarvey Law, in 2023, we brought our clients’ powerful stories and climate science into the courtroom in the first ever U.S. climate trial in history. 

The youth plaintiffs ranged in age from 2-18 when we first filed the lawsuit. They represent unique landscapes and geographies from across the state of Montana and its Tribal lands. During this landmark trial, the youth plaintiffs bravely testified about how climate change has harmed their health, livelihoods, cultural practices, psychological well-being, and the state they call home. World-renowned climate experts testified that Montana’s promotion of fossil fuels and suppression of renewable energy development have aggravated drought, fueled megafires, and depleted natural resources. 

We were ecstatic when the court ruled in the youth plaintiffs’ favor in 2023, recognizing that the right to a clean and healthful environment is meaningless without a livable climate. One expert called this “the strongest decision on climate change ever issued by any court.” Ever defiant, the state appealed our landmark decision to the Montana Supreme Court. 

We are proud to report that the highest court in Montana affirmed our victory, upholding the youth plaintiffs’ rights to a clean and healthful environment, including a livable climate. This win is a decisive rejection of the state of Montana’s recalcitrant promotion of climate-harming fossil fuel development while stifling renewable energy.   

We prevailed for a simple reason: We proved these youth clients have suffered financial loss, health challenges, and mental duress that the Montana Constitution obliged the state to avoid and minimize. Further, we proved those harms will only worsen if the state continues to pursue its reckless fossil-first energy policy. Now, we have set our sights on using the power of the law to defend every Montanan’s right to a livable climate. 

Photos by Robin Loznak; courtesy of Our Children’s Trust