IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF OREGON 

EUGENE DIVISION 

KELSEY CASCADIA ROSE JULIANA, 

et al., 

Plaintiffs, 

v. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al, 

Defendants. 

AIKEN, Judge: 1 

Case No. 6:15-cv-01517-TC 

OPINION AND ORDER 

Plaintiffs in this civil rights action are a group of young people between the ages of eight and 

nineteen ("youth plaintiffs"); Earth Guardians, an association of young environmental activists; and 

1 Student externs worked on each stage of the preparation of this opinion, from initial 

background research to final copyedits. I would be remiss ifl did not acknowledge the 

invaluable contributions of Daniel Bodden (University of Kentucky), Elizabeth Jacklin 

(University of Oregon School of Law), Ann Richan Metler (Willamette University College of 

Law), James Mullins (University of Washington School of Law), Jessy R. Nations (University of 

Washington School of Law), Lydeah Negro (Lewis & Clark Law School), and Eleanor J. Vincent 

(University of Oregon School of Law.) 

PAGE 1 - OPINION AND ORDER 

g
Dr. James Hansen, acting as guardian for future generations.2 Plaintiffs filed this action against 

defendants the United States, President Barack Obama, and numerous executive agencies. Plaintiffs 

allege defendants have known for more than fifty years that the carbon dioxide ("CO;') produced 

by burning fossil fuels was destabilizing the climate system in a way that would "significantly 

endanger plaintiffs, with the damage persisting for millenia." First. Am. Comp!.~ 1. Despite that 

knowledge, plaintiffs asse1t defendants, "[b ]ytheir exercise of sovereign authority over our counhy' s 

atmosphere and fossil fuel resources, ... permitted, encouraged, and otherwise enabled continued 

exploitation, production, and combustion of fossil fuels, ... deliberately allow[ing] atmospheric C02 

concentrations to escalate to levels unprecedented in human history[.]" Id ~ 5. Although many 

different entities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, plaintiffs aver defendants bear "a higher 

degree of responsibility than any other individual, entity, or country" for exposing plaintiffs to the 

dangers of climate change. Id. ~ 7. Plaintiffs argue defendants' actions violate their substantive due 

process rights to life, liberty, and property, and that defendants have violated their obligation to hold 

ce1tain natural resources in trust for the people and for future generations. 

Plaintiffs asse1t there is a ve1y short window in which defendants could act to phase out fossil 

fuel exploitation and avert environmental catastrophe. They seek ( 1) a declaration their 

constitutional and public trust rights have been violated and (2) an order enjoining defendants from 

violating those rights and directing defendants to develop a plan to reduce C02 emissions. 

Defendants moved to dismiss this action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure 

2 Although plaintiffs in this lawsuit hale from a number of different states, venue is 

proper in the District of Oregon. The majority of youth plaintiffs, including lead plaintiff Kelsey 

Juliana, reside in the District of Oregon. First Am. Comp!.~~ 16, 23, 31, 35, 44, 47, 50, 53, 57, 

60. In addition, plaintiff Earth Guardians has a chapter in Eugene, Oregon. 

PAGE 2 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 2 of 54
to state a claim. Doc. 27. Intervenors the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Fuel 

& Petrochemical Manufacturers, and the American Petroleum Institute moved to dismiss on the 

same grounds. Doc. 19. After oral argument, Magistrate Judge Coffin issued his Findings and 

Recommendation ("F&R") and recommended denying the motions to dismiss. Doc. 68. Judge 

Coffin then referred the matter to me for review pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636 and Federal Rule of 

Civil Procedure 72. Doc. 69. Defendants and intervenors filed objections (docs. 73 & 74), and on 

September 13, 2016, this Court heard oral argument. 

For the reasons set forth below, I adopt Judge Coffin's F&R as elaborated in this opinion and 

deny the motions to dismiss. 

BACKGROUND 

This is no ordinary lawsuit. Plaintiffs challenge the policies, acts, and omissions of the 

President of the United States, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Management and 

Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Energy, the Depatiment 

of the Interior, the Depatiment of Transportation ("DOT"), the Department of Agriculture, the 

Depmtment of Commerce, the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the 

Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"). This lawsuit challenges decisions defendants have made 

across a vast set of topics - decisions like whether and to what extent to regulate C02 emissions 

from power plants and vehicles, whether to permit fossil fuel extraction and development to take 

place on federal lands, how much to charge for use of those lands, whether to give tax breaks to the 

fossil fuel industty, whether to subsidize or directly fund that industty, whether to fund the 

construction of fossil fuel infrastructure such as natural gas pipelines at home and abroad, whether 

to permit the expoti and import of fossil fuels from and to the United States, and whether to 

PAGE 3 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 3 of 54
authorize new marine coal terminal projects. Plaintiffs assert defendants' decisions on these topics 

have substantially caused the planet to warm and the oceans to rise. They draw a direct causal line 

between defendants' policy choices and floods, food shortages, destruction of property, species 

extinction, and a host of other harms. 

This lawsuit is not about proving that climate change is happening or that human activity is 

driving it. For the purposes of this motion, those facts are undisputed.3 The questions before the 

Coutt are whether defendants are responsible for some of the harm caused by climate change, 

whether plaintiffs may challenge defendants' climate change policy in court, and whether this Coutt 

can direct defendants to change their policy without running afoul of the separation of powers 

doctrine. 

STANDARDS 

The Magistrates Act authorizes a district coutt to "accept, reject or modify, in whole or in 

part, the findings orrecommendations made by the magistrate judge.'' 28 U.S.C. § 636(b )(! ). When 

a patty objects to any portion of the magistrate's findings and recommendation, the district court 

must review de nova that portion of the magistrate judge's report. Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(3); see also 

3 For the purposes of this motion, I proceed on the understanding that climate change 

exists, is caused by humans, and poses a serious threat to our planet. Defendants open their 

Objections to Judge Coffin's F&R by stating that "[c]limate change poses a monumental threat to 

Americans' health and welfare by driving long-lasting changes in our climate, leading to an array 

of severe negative effects, which will worsen over time." Fed. Defs.' Obj. to F&R 1 (doc. 78). 

In the 2015 State of the Union address, defendant President Barack Obama declared "[n]o 

challenge ... poses a greater tlll'eat to future generations than climate change." President Barack 

Obama, Remarks in State of the Union Address (Jan. 20, 2015), available at 

www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01 /20/remarks-president-state-union-addressj anuary-20-2015 (last visited Nov. 7, 2016). When asked at oral argument if they agreed that 

human-caused climate change poses a serious threat, intervenors declined to take a clear position. 

All parties agree, however, that a dispute over the existence of climate change is not at the heart 

of this case. 

PAGE 4 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 4 of 54
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Commodore Bus. Machs., Inc., 656 F.2d 1309, 1313 (9th Cir. 1981) 

(for dispositive motions, "the statute grants the broadest possible discretion to the reviewing district 

court"). 

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(l), a district court must dismiss an action if 

subject matter jurisdiction is lacking. A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b )(1) may attack either the 

allegations of the complaint or the "existence of subject matter in fact." Thornhill Pub! 'g Co., Inc. 

v. Gen. Tel. & Elec. Corp., 594 F.2d 730, 733 (9th Cir. 1979). The party seeking to invoke the 

district court's jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing subject matter jurisdiction. Kokkonen 

v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 377 (1994). 

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), a complaint is construed in favor of the 

plaintiff, and its factual allegations are taken as true. Daniels-Hall v. Nat'! Educ. Ass 'n, 629 F.3d 

992, 998 (9th Cir. 2010). However, the court need not accept as true "conclusory" allegations or 

umeasonable inferences. Id. Thus, "for a complaint to survive a motion to dismiss, the nonconclusory factual content, and reasonable inferences from that content, must be plausibly suggestive 

ofa claim entitling the plaintiff to relief." Moss v. US. Secret Serv., 572 F.3d 962, 969 (9th Cir. 

2009) (quotation marks omitted). "A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual 

content that allows the comt to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the 

misconduct alleged." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). "[O]nce a claim has been stated 

adequately, it may be suppo1ted by showing any set of facts consistent with the allegations in the 

complaint." Bell At!. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 563 (2007). 

DISCUSSION 

Judge Coffin recommended denying defendants' and intervenors' motions to dismiss and 

PAGE 5 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 5 of 54
holding that plaintiffs' public trust and due process claims may proceed. Defendants and intervenors 

object to those recommendations on a number of grounds. They contend plaintiffs' claims must be 

dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because the case presents non-justiciable political questions, 

plaintiffs lack standing to sue, and federal public trust claims cannot be asserted against the federal 

government. They fmiher argue plaintiffs have failed to state a claim on which relief can be granted. 

I first address the threshold challenges to jurisdiction, and then proceed to address the viability of 

plaintiffs' due process and public trust claims. 

I. Political Question 

If a case presents a political question, federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction to decide 

that question. Corrie v. Caterpillar, Inc., 503 F.3d 974, 982 (9th Cir. 2007). The political question 

doctrine is "primarily a function of the separation of powers." Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 210 

(1962). This limitation on the federal comis was recognized in MarbWJ' v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 

Cranch) 137, 170 (1803), in which Chief Justice Marshall wrote, "[q]uestions, in their nature 

political, or which are, by the constitution and laws, submitted to the executive, can never be made 

in this comi." However, the scope of the political question doctrine should not be overstated. As 

Alexis de Tocqueville observed, "[t]here is hardly any political question in the United States that 

sooner or later does not turn into a judicial question." 1 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in 

America 440 (Liberty Fund 2012). 

In Baker, the Supreme Comt identified six criteria, each of which could individually signal 

the presence of a political question: 

[(!)A] textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate 

political depatiment; [(2)] a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards 

for resolving it; [(3)] the impossibility of deciding without an initial policy 

PAGE 6 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 6 of 54
determination ofa kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion; [(4)] the impossibility of 

a court's undettaking independent resolution without expressing lack of the respect 

due coordinate branches of government; [(5)] an unusual need for unquestioning 

adherence to a political decision already made; or [(6)] the potentiality of 

embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various depattments on one 

question. 

Baker, 369 U.S. at 217. The Baker tests "are probably listed in descending order of both impottance 

and cettainty." Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267, 278 (2004) (plurality op.). The factors overlap, 

with the analyses "often collapsing into one another." Alperin v. Vatican Bank, 410 F.3d 532, 544 

(9th Cir. 2005). The "common underlying inquity" is whether "the question is one that can properly 

be decided by the judiciaty." Id. 

Determining whether the political question doctrine requires abstention calls on a coutt to 

balance profoundly important interests. On the one hand, the separation of powers is fundamental 

to our system of government, known"[ e]ven before the birth of this countty" to be "a defense against 

tyranny." Loving v. United States, 517 U.S. 748, 756 (1996). It is a "basic principle of our 

constitutional scheme that one branch of the Government may not intrude upon the central 

prerogatives of another." Id at 757. On the other hand, "[t]he decision to deny access to judicial 

relief' should never be made "lightly,'' because federal courts "have the power, and ordinarily the 

obligation, to decide cases and controversies properly presented to them." Alperin, 410 F.3d at 539 

(quoting Liu v. Rep. of China, 892 F.2d 1419, 1433 (9th Cir. 1989) and W.S. Kirkpatrick & Co. v. 

Envt 'l Tectonics C017J., Int 'l, 493 U.S. 400, 409 (1990)). Accordingly, a comt cannot simply err on 

the side of declining to exercise jurisdiction when it fears a political question may exist; it must 

instead diligently map the precise limits of jurisdiction. 

Climate change, energy policy, and environmental regulation are certainly "political" in the 

PAGE 7 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 7 of 54
sense that they have "motivated partisan and sectional debate during important portions of our 

history." US. Dep't of Commerce v. Montana, 503 U.S. 442, 458 (1992). But a case does not 

present a political question merely because it "raises an issue of great importance to the political 

branches." Id. Instead, dismissal on political question grounds is appropriate only if one of the 

Baker considerations is "inextricable" from the case. Baker, 369 U.S. at 217. As a result, federal 

courts regularly adjudicate claims that arise in connection with politically charged issues. See, e.g., 

Jewel v. Nat'/ Sec. Agency, 673 F.3d 902, 912 (9th Cir. 2011) (electronic surveillance); Chiles v. 

Thornburgh, 865 F.2d 1197, 1216 (11th Cir. 1989) (detention of undocumented immigrants); 

Planned Parenthood Fed'n of Am., Inc. v. Agency for Int 'I Dev., 838 F.2d 649, 656 (2d Cir. 1988) 

(international funding for birth control and abortion). In each of the above cases, the coutt engaged 

in "discriminating inquiry into the precise facts" before concluding the controversy was justiciable. 

Baker, 369 U.S. at 217. A similar rigorous analysis is necessaty here. 

A. First Baker Factor 

The first Baker factor requires abstention "[ w ]hen a case would require a court to decide an 

issue whose resolution is textually committed to a coordinate political department" because "the 

court lacks authority to resolve that issue." Zivotofeky ex rel. Zivotofeky v. Clinton, 132 S. Ct. 1421, 

1431 (2012) (Sotomayor, J., concurring). Since Baker, the Supreme Court has found such "textual 

commitment" in ve1y few cases. In Nixon v. United States, 506 U.S. 224 (1993), a former federal 

judge sought to challenge the Senate's processes for taking evidence during impeachment trials. Id. 

at 226. The Coutt found his claim nonjusticiable due to the Constitution's clear statement granting 

the Senate "the sole Power to tty all Impeachments." Id. at 229 (quoting U.S. Const. att. I,§ 3, cl. 

6). The Court found the provision's use of the word "sole" to be "of considerable significance." 

PAGE 8- OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 8 of 54
Id. at 231. The Court also discussed the histoty of the clause at issue, noting that the "Framers 

labored over the question of where the impeachment power should lie" and "at least two considered" 

- and rejected - placing that power within the federal judiciary. Id. at 233. 

In Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228, 235 n.11 (1979), the Court characterized the Speech or 

Debate Clause as the "paradigm example" of a "textually demonstrable constitutional commitment." 

That clause provides that Senators and Representatives, "for any Speech or Debate in either House, 

... shall not be questioned in any other place." U.S. Const. Art. I,§ 6, cl. 1. The Coutt explained 

that the clause plainly shields statements of federal legislators made during speech or debate in 

committees or on the House or Senate floor from any sort of judicial review, and thus speaks 

"directly to ... separation-of-powers concerns." Davis, 442 U.S. at 235 n.11. 

Most recently, in Zivotoftky, the Court held that the Constitution gives the president the 

exclusive authority to recognize foreign nations and governments. 135 S. Ct. at 2086. The Court 

acknowledged that the Constitution does not use the term "recognition." Id. at 2084. Nonetheless, 

the Coutt determined that the Constitution granted the recognition power to the Executive Branch 

"[a]s a matter of constitutional structure." Id. at 2085. The Coutt concluded that the clauses giving 

the president exclusive authority to receive ambassadors and to negotiate treaties implicitly granted 

the recognition power. Id. at 2086. That determination rested in patt on the Court's conclusion that 

recognition was uniquely "a topic on which the Nation much speak with one voice." Id. at 2086 

(quotation marks and ellipsis omitted). If Congress had the power to decline to recognize a foreign 

state the Executive had decided to recognize, the president would be unable to assure that foreign 

state that its ambassadors would be received, its officials would be immune from suit in federal 

couti, and it would be permitted to initiate lawsuits in the United States to vindicate its rights. Id. 

PAGE 9 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 9 of 54
In issuing its decision, the Court expressly declined to hold that the Constitution gives the president 

the "unbounded power" to "conduct diplomatic relations" and exercise "the bulk of foreign-affairs 

powers." Id at 2089. 

Unlike in the constitutional provisions at issue Nixon and Passman, the constitutional 

provisions cited here contain nothing approaching a clear reference to the subject matter of this case. 

The Constitution does not mention environmental policy, atmospheric emissions, or global warming. 

And unlike in Zivotojksy, climate change policy is not a fundamental power on which any other 

power allocated exclusively to other branches of government rests. Intervenors correctly point out 

that the Constitution gives the political branches authority over commerce, foreign relations, national 

defense, and federal lands - all areas affected by climate change policy. See U.S. Const. art. I, § 

8 cl. 3 (Congress has authority to "regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 

states"); Zivotoftky, 135 S. Ct. at 2084-86 (discussing various constitutional provisions granting the 

Executive Branch foreign relations authority); U.S. Const. art. I,§ 8 cl. 11-16 (detailing Congress's 

powers relating to war and the militaiy); U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1 (President is commander in 

chief of armed forces); U.S. Const. at1. IV,§ 3, cl. 2 (Congress has power to "dispose of and make 

all needful rules and regulations" regarding federal land). But holding the first Baker factor applies 

in any case relating to these topic areas would permit the exception to swallow the rule. The 

question is not whether a case implicates issues that appear in the portions of the Constitution 

allocating power to the Legislative and Executive Branches - such a test would, by definition, 

shield nearly all legislative and executive action from legal challenge. Rather, the question is 

whether adjudicating a claim would require the Judicial Branch to second-guess decisions committed 

exclusively to another branch of government. 

PAGE 10-0PINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 10 of 54
In the lower courts, the first Baker factor has found its broadest application in foreign policy 

cases. See, e.g., Corrie, 503 F.3d at 983 ("Whether to grant military or other aid to a foreign nation 

is a political decision inherently entangled with the conduct of foreign relations."); Gonzalez-Vera 

v. Kissinger, 449 F.3d 1260, 1263 (D.C. Cir. 2006) (decision to take "drastic measures" to keep 

Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in power was a foreign policy decision textually committed to 

the Executive Branch); Sadowski v. Bush, 293 F. Supp. 2d 15, 21 (D. C. Cir. 2003) (decision to go 

to war in Afghanistan was not justiciable, "primarily because war powers have been explicitly 

committed to the political branches"). As a result, I give special consideration to the argument that 

granting plaintiffs' requested relief would usurp the Executive Branch's foreign relations authority. 

Climate change policy has global implications and so is sometimes the subject of international 

agreements. But unlike the decisions to go to war, take action to keep a particular foreign leader in 

power, or give aid to another country, climate change policy is not inherently, or even primarily, a 

foreign policy decision. Moreover, in the foreign policy context, Baker expressly warned against 

framing the "textually committed" inquiry too broadly. See Baker, 369 U.S. at 211 ("[I]t is error to 

suppose that eve1y case or controversy which touches foreign relations lies beyond judicial 

cognizance.") The first Baker factor does not apply. 

B. Second and Third Baker Factors 

"The second and third Baker factors reflect circumstances in which a dispute calls for 

decisionmaking beyond courts' competence." Zivotoftky, 132 S. Ct. at 1432 (Sotomayor, J., 

concurring). "When a court is given no standard by which to adjudicate a dispute, or cannot resolve 

a dispute in the absence of a yet-unmade policy determination charged to a political branch, 

resolution of the suit is beyond the judicial role envisioned by Article III." Id 

PAGE 11 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 11 of 54
Defendants' and intervenors' arguments on the second and third Baker factors can be divided 

into two main points. First, intervenors contend the Comt cannot set a permissible emissions level 

without making ad hoc policy determinations about how to weigh competing economic and 

environmental concerns. But plaintiffs do not ask this Comt to pinpoint the "best" emissions level; 

they ask this Court to determine what emissions level would be sufficient to redress their injuries. 

That question can be answered without any consideration of competing interests. Cf Coleman v. 

Schwarzenegger, 2010 WL 99000, *l (E.D. Cal. & N.D. Cal. Jan. 12, 2010) (requiring state to 

reduce the population of adult prisons to 137.5% of their total design capacity, a target which 

"extend[ ed] no further than necessaty to correct the violation of California inmates' federal 

constitutional rights"). The science may well be complex, but logistical difficulties are immaterial 

to the political question analysis. See Alperin, 410 F.3d at 552, 555 ("[T]he crux ofth[e political 

question] inquiry is . . . not whether the case is unmanageable in the sense of being large, 

complicated, or otherwise difficult to tackle from a logistical standpoint," but rather whether "a legal 

framework exists by which comts can evaluate ... claims in a reasoned manner."). 

Second, intervenors aver the Comt would have to choose which agencies and sectors should 

reduce emissions, and by how much. At oral argument, intervenors contended this would require 

review of every environmental rule and regulation in the last one hundred years. These arguments 

mischaracterize the relief plaintiffs seek. Plaintiffs do not seek to have this Court direct any 

individual agency to issue or enforce any patticular regulation. Rather, they ask the Court to declare 

the United States' cmTent environmental policy infringes their fundamental rights, direct the agencies 

to conduct a consumption-based inventoty of United States C02 emissions, and use that inventoty 

to "prepare and implement an enforceable national remedial plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions 

PAGE 12 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 12 of 54
and draw down excess atmospheric C02 so as to stabilize the climate system and protect the vital 

resources on which Plaintiffs now and in the future will depend." First Am. Comp!. at 94. This 

Court could issue the requested declaration without directing any individual agency to take any 

particular action. 

Finally, defendants and intervenors contend that plaintiffs' failure to identify violations of 

precise statutoty or regulatoty provisions leaves this court without any legal standard by which to 

judge plaintiffs' claims. Plaintiffs could have brought a lawsuit predicated on technical regulato1y 

violations, but they chose a different path. As masters of their complaint, they have elected to assert 

constitutional rather than statutoty claims. Every day, federal comts apply the legal standards 

governing due process claims to new sets of facts. The facts in this case, though novel, are amenable 

to those well-established standards. Neither the second nor the third Baker factor divests this Comt 

of jurisdiction. 

In the political question section of their objections to Judge Coffin's F&R, defendants assett 

the allegations in the complaint are not specific enough to put them on notice of plaintiffs' claims. 

This argument relates to the second and third Baker factors and the competence of this Court to 

adjudicate those claims, considerations which are addressed above. The argument also touches on 

concerns about causation and redressability, which are discussed in Section II of this opinion. 

However, the argument is also phrased in terms common to cases governing general pleading 

standards. See Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555 (complaint in federal comt must contain enough 

information to "give the defendant fair notice" of both the claim and the "grounds upon which it 

rests" (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47 (1957)). To the extent defendants challenge the 

First Amended Complaint as inadequately pleaded, that challenge fails. This is not a typical 

PAGE 13 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 13 of 54
environmental case. Plaintiffs are not arguing defendants issued any particular permit in violation 

of a statutory provision in the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act. They are not arguing any 

specific tax break, royalty rate, or contract runs afoul of an agency's governing regulations. Rather, 

the themy of plaintiffs' case is much broader: it is that defendants' aggregate actions violate their 

substantive due process rights and the government's public trust obligations. That themy, which 

requires no citation to particular statutoty or regulatmy provisions, is clear from the face of the First 

Amended Complaint. 

C. Fourth through Sixth Baker Factors 

The fomih through sixth Baker factors "address circumstances in which prudence may 

counsel against a comi's resolution of an issue presented." Zivotofsky, 132 S. Ct. at 1432 

(Sotomayor, J., concurring). Only in "rare" cases will Baker's "final factors alone render a case 

nonjusticiable." Id. at 1434. 

Intervenors contend the fourth Baker factor, which concerns a comi expressing lack of 

respect to another branch of government, applies in this case. They argue that because the Executive 

and Legislative branches have taken numerous steps to address climate change, a ruling in plaintiffs' 

favor would be disrespectful to those efforts. Intervenors would have this Court hold the political 

question doctrine prevents a court from determining whether the federal government has violated 

a plaintiffs constitutional rights so long as the government has taken some steps to mitigate the 

damage. However, intervenors cite no cases - and this Couti is aware of none - to support such 

a broad application of the foutih Baker factor. Rather, comis have found the fourth factor applies 

in cases asking a comi to "question the good faith with which another branch attests to the 

authenticity of its internal acts." Id. at 1433. The fourth factor has also been held relevant when 

PAGE 14- OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 14 of 54
"judicial resolution of a question would contradict prior decisions taken by a political branch in those 

limited contexts where such contradiction would seriously interfere with impmiant governmental 

interests." Kadic v. Karadzic, 70 F.3d 232, 249 (2d Cir. 1995). 

Consistent with those formulations, federal appellate courts have found the foutih Baker 

factor present when judicial adjudication of a claim would be wholly incompatible with foreignrelations decisions made by one of the political branches. See, e.g., Whiteman v. Dorotheum GmbH 

& Co. KG, 431 F .3d 57, 59 (2d Cir. 2005) (political question doctrine prevented court from 

adjudicating claims against Austrian government for seizure of property from Jewish families during 

World War II because two presidential administrations had "committed the United States to a policy 

of resolving Holocaust-era restitution claims through international agreements rather than 

litigation."); Schneider v. Kissinger, 412 FJd 190, 198 (D.C. Cir. 2005) (political question doctrine 

barred review of Executive Branch decision to patiicipate in cove1i operations in Chile, a decision 

that had already been the subject of congressional inquily). 

Although the United States has made international commitments regarding climate change, 

granting the relief requested here would be fully consistent with those commitments. There is no 

contradiction between promising other nations the United States will reduce C02 emissions and a 

judicial order directing the United States to go beyond its international commitments to more 

aggressively reduce C02 emissions. Because this Court could grant plaintiffs' requested relief 

without expressing disrespect for the Executive Branch's international climate change agreements, 

the fourth Baker factor does not apply. 

Neither intervenors nor defendants suggest the fifth or sixth Baker factors apply here. 

Nonetheless, I address those factors because federal coutis have an "independent obligation to assure 

PAGE 15- OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 15 of 54
[them ]selves of' the existence of subject matter jurisdiction. Rosson v. Fitzgerald (In re Rosson), 

545 F.3d 764, 769 n.5 (9th Cir. 2008). On the face of the complaint, I see no evidence of an 

"unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made" or any "potentiality 

of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various depatiments on one question." 

Baker, 369 U.S. at 217. I conclude neither of the two final Baker factors deprives this Court of 

subject matter jurisdiction. 

D. Summwy: This Case Does Not Raise a Nonjusticiable Political Question 

There is no need to step outside the core role ofthejudiciaiyto decide this case. At its heat1, 

this lawsuit asks this Comt to determine whether defendants have violated plaintiffs' constitutional 

rights. That question is squarely within the purview of the judiciaiy. See INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 

919, 941 (1983) (judiciaty is bound to determine whether the political branches have "chosen a 

constitutionally permissible means of implementing [their] power"); Jewel, 673 F.3d at 912 

(although lawsuit challenging federal agencies' surveillance practices "strikes at the heat1 of a major 

public policy controversy," claims were justiciable because they were "straightforward claims of 

statutoty and constitutional rights, not political questions"). 

This case shares some key features with Baker itself. In Baker, a group of voters challenged 

a statute governing the appot1ionment of state legislative districts. 369 U.S. at 188-95. Sixty years 

of population growth without legislative reappottionment had led to some votes carrying much more 

weight than others. Id. at 192-93. Here, the majority of youth plaintiffs are minors who cannot vote 

and must depend on others to protect their political interests. Thus, as amicus the League of Women 

Voters persuasively argues, the youth plaintiffs' claims are similar to the Baker claims because they 

are "rooted in a 'debasement of their votes' and an accompanying diminishment of their voice in 

PAGE 16-0PINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 16 of 54
representational government." Br. for the League of Women Voters in the United States et al. as 

Amici Curiae at 19-20 (doc. 79-1 ).4 In Baker, the Court acknowledged that the plaintiffs' claims had 

political dimensions and ramifications - but nonetheless concluded none of the Baker factors was 

inextricable from the case. 369 U.S. at 209. Similarly, as discussed in detail above, this case raises 

political issues yet is not barred by the political question doctrine. 

Should plaintiffs prevail on the merits, this Court would no doubt be compelled to exercise 

great care to avoid separation-of-powers problems in crafting a remedy. The separation of powers 

might, for example, permit the Court to direct defendants to ameliorate plaintiffs' injuries but limit 

its ability to specify precisely how to do so. Cf S. Burlington Cnty. N.A.A. C.P. v. Mt. Laurel Twp., 

336 A.2d 713, 734 (N.J. 1975) (leaving to municipality "in the first instance at least" the 

determination of how to remedy the constitutional problems with a local zoning ordinance). That 

said, federal comts retain broad authority "to fashion practical remedies when confronted with 

complex and intractable constitutional violations." Brown v. Plata, 563 U.S. 493, 526 (2011). In 

any event, speculation about the difficulty of crafting a remedy could not suppo1t dismissal at this 

early stage. See Baker, 369 U.S. at 198 ("Beyond noting that we have no cause at this stage to doubt 

the District Court will be able to fashion relief if violations of constitutional rights are found, it is 

improper now to consider what remedy would be most appropriate if appellants prevail at trial.") 

Because no Baker factor is inextricable from the merits of this case, the political question doctrine 

is not a barrier to plaintiffs' claims. 

4 The motion of the League of Women Voters of the United States and the League of 

Women Voters of Oregon to appear as amici curiae (doc. 79) is granted. 

PAGE 17 -OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 17 of 54
IL Standing to Sue 

"A threshold question in every federal case is ... whether at least one plaintiff has standing." 

Thomas v. Mundell, 572 F.3d 756, 760 (9th Cir. 2009) (citation and quotation marks omitted). 

Standing requires a plaintiff to allege "such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to 

warrant [the] invocation of federal-court jurisdiction and to justify exercise of the court's remedial 

powers[.]" Warth v. Seldin, 442 U.S. 490, 498 (1975). To demonstrate standing, a plaintiff must 

show (1) she suffered an injmy in fact that is concrete, patiicularized, and actual or imminent; (2) 

the injmy is fairly traceable to the defendant's challenged conduct; and (3) the injmy is likely to be 

redressed by a favorable court decision. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560 (1992). 

A plaintiff must support each element of the standing test "with the manner and degree of evidence 

required at the successive stages of the litigation." Id. at 561. Accordingly, at the motion to dismiss 

stage "general allegations" suffice to establish standing because those allegations are presumed to 

"embrace those specific facts that are necessary to suppoti the claim." Id. (citation and quotation 

marks omitted). 

A Injury in Fact 

In an environmental case, a plaintiff cannot demonstrate injury in fact merely by alleging 

injury to the environment; there must be an allegation that the challenged conduct is harming (or 

imminently will harm) the plaintiff. Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envt'l Servs. (I'OC), Inc., 

528 U.S. 167, 181 (2000). For example, a plaintiff may meet the injmy in fact requirement by 

alleging the challenged activity "impairs his or her economic interests or aesthetic and environmental 

well-being." Wash. Envt 'l Council v. Bellon, 732 F.3d 1131, 1140 (9th Cir. 2013) (quotation marks 

omitted and alterations normalized). 

PAGE 18-0PINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 18 of 54
Plaintiffs adequately allege injury in fact. Lead plaintiff Kelsey Juliana alleges algae blooms 

harm the water she drinks, and low water levels caused by drought kill the wild salmon she eats. 

First Am. Comp!. '\['\[ 17-18. Plaintiff Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez alleges increased wildfires and 

extreme floodingjeopardizehis personal safety. Id '\[21. Plaintiff Alexander Loznak alleges recordsetting temperatures harm the health of the hazelnut orchard on his family farm, an impottant source 

of both revenue and food for him and his family. Id '\[ 26. Plaintiff Jacob Lebel alleges drought 

conditions required his family to install an irrigation system at their farm. Id '\[ 32. Plaintiff Zealand 

B. alleges he has been unable to ski during the winter as a result of decreased snowpack. Id '\[ 38. 

Plaintiff Sahara V. alleges hot, dty conditions caused by forest fires aggravate her asthma. Id. '\[ 46. 

The most recent allegations of injmy appear in the supplemental declaration of plaintiff 

Jayden F., a thitteen-year-old resident of Rayne, Louisiana. Jayden alleges that at five o'clock the 

morning of August 13, 2016, her siblings woke her up. Deel. Jayden F. 'If 5 Sept. 7, 2016 (doc. 78). 

She stepped out of bed into ankle-deep water. By the end of the day, 

Floodwaters were pouring into our home through evety possible opening. We 

tried to stop it with towels, blankets, and boards. The water was flowing down the 

hallway, into my Mom's room and my sisters' room. The water drenched my living 

room and began to cover our kitchen floor. Our toilets, sinks, and bathtubs began to 

overflow with awful smelling sewage because our town's sewer system also flooded. 

Soon the sewage was evetywhere. We had a stream of sewage and water running 

through our house. 

Id '\[ 8. With no shelters available and nowhere else to go, the family remained in the flooded house 

for weeks. Id '\[ l 0. The floodwaters eventually receded, but the damage remains: the carpets are 

soaked with sewage water. Id '\[ 12. The water-logged walls must be torn down to prevent the 

growth of black mold. Id The entire family sleeps together in the living room because the 

bedrooms are uninhabitable. Id '\[ l 5. Jayden alleges the storm that destroyed her home "ordinarily 

PAGE 19- OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 19 of 54
would happen once every 1,000 years, but is happening now as a result of climate change." Id if 2. 

The government contends these injuries are not particular to plaintiffs because they are 

caused by climate change, which broadly affects the entire planet (and all people on it) in some way. 

According to the government, this renders plaintiffs' injuries nonjusticiable generalized grievances. 

See Lexmark Int'/, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 1377, 1387 n.3 (2014) 

(explaining that generalized grievances do not meet Atticle Ill's case or controversy requirement). 

The government misunderstands the generalized grievance rule. As the Ninth Circuit 

recently explained, federal courts lack jurisdiction to hear a case when the harm at issue is "not only 

widely shared, but is also of an abstract and indefinite nature - for example, harm to the common 

concern for obedience to the law." Novak v. United States, 795 F.3d 1012, 1018 (9th Cir. 2015) 

(quoting Fed Elec. Comm 'n v. Akins, 524 U.S. 11, 23 (1998)). Standing alone, "the fact that aharm 

is widely shared does not necessarily render it a generalized grievance." Jewel, 673 F .3d at 909; see 

also Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497, 517 (2007) ("[I]t does not matter how many persons have 

been injured by the challenged action" so long as "the patty bringing suit shows that the action 

injures him in a concrete and personal way." (quotation marks omitted and alterations normalized)); 

Akins, 524 U.S. at 24 ("[A]n injury .... widely shared ... does not, by itself, automatically 

disqualify an interest for Atticle III purposes. Such an interest, where sufficiently concrete, may 

count as an 'injury in fact."'); Covington v. Jefferson Cnty., 358 F.3d 626, 651 (9th Cir. 2004) 

(Gould, J., concurring) ("[T]he most recent Supreme Coutt precedent appears to have rejected the 

notion that injmyto all isinjmyto none for standing purposes."); Pye v. United States, 269 F.3d 459, 

469 (4th Cir. 2001) ("So long as the plaintiff ... has a concrete and particularized injmy, it does not 

matter that legions of other persons have the same injmy."). Indeed, even if"the experience at the 

PAGE 20 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 20 of 54
root of [the] complaint was shared by virtually every American," the inquity remains whether that 

shared experience caused an injury that is concrete and particular to the plaintiff. Jewel, 673 F.3d 

at 910. Applying the correct formulation of the generalized grievance rule, plaintiffs' alleged injuries 

- harm to their personal, economic and aesthetic interests - are concrete and particularized, not 

abstract or indefinite. 

That leaves imminence. Plaintiffs must demonstrate standing for each claim they seek to 

press and for each form ofrelief sought. Daimler Chrysler Corp. v. Cuna, 547 U.S. 332, 352 (2006). 

Because plaintiffs seek injunctive relief, they must show their injuries are "ongoing or likely to 

recur." Consumer Fin. Prof. Bureau v. Gordon, 819 F.3d 1179, 1197 (9th Cir. 2016)(quoting FTC 

v. Evans Prods. Co., 77 5 F .2d 1084, 1087 (9th Cir. 1985)). They have met this requirement. The 

complaint alleges that "[t]he present level of C02 and its warming, both realized and latent, are 

already in the zone of danger." First Am. Comp!. 'if 8. It also alleges that "our countty is now in a 

period ofcarbon overshoot, with early consequences that are already threatening and that will, in the 

shott term, rise to unbearable unless Defendants take immediate action[.]" Id. 'if 10 (quotation marks 

omitted). Youth plaintiffs each allege harm that is ongoing and likely to continue in the future. See, 

e.g., id. 'if 17 (alleging current harm and harm "[i]n the coming decades" from ocean acidification 

and rising sea levels); id. 'if 45 (alleging damage to freshwater resources now and in the future "if 

immediate action is not taken" to reduce C02 emissions). This is sufficient to satisfy the imminence 

requirement. 

By alleging injuries that are concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent, plaintiffs have 

satisfied the first prong of the standing test. 

PAGE 21 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 21 of 54
B. Causation 

The second requirement of standing is causation. A plaintiff must show the injury alleged 

is "fairly traceable" to the challenged action of the defendant and not the result of"the independent 

action of some third patiy not before the couti." Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560 (citation and quotation 

marks omitted). Although a defendant's action need not be the sole source of injuty to support 

standing, Barnum Timber Co. v. EPA, 633 F.3d 894, 901 (9th Cir. 2011), "[t]he line of causation 

between the defendant's action and the plaintiffs harm must be more than attenuated," Native Vil!. 

of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp., 696 F.3d 849, 867 (9th Cir. 2012) (citations and quotation marks 

omitted). However, a "causal chain does not fail simply because it has several links, provided those 

links are not hypothetical or tenuous and remain plausible." Id. (citations, quotation marks, and 

bracket omitted). 

The government contends plaintiffs have not adequately alleged causation, relying on the 

Ninth Circuit's decision in Bellon. In that case, environmental advocacy groups sought to compel 

the Washington State Depatiment of Ecology and other regional agencies "to regulate greenhouse 

gas emissions" ("GHGs") from five oil refineries. Bellon, 732 F.3d at 1135. The court held 

plaintiffs lacked standing to sue because the causal link between the agencies' regulatory decisions 

and the plaintiffs' injuries was "too attenuated." Id. at 1141. The couti explained the special 

challenge of showing causation with respect to the production of greenhouse gases: 

Greenhouse gases, once emitted from a specific source, quickly mix and disperse in 

the global atmosphere and have a long atmospheric lifetime. Current research on 

how greenhouse gases influence global climate change has focused on the cumulative 

environmental effects from aggregate regional or global sources. But there is limited 

scientific capability in assessing, detecting, or measuring the relationship between a 

cetiain GHG emission source and localized climate impacts in a given region. 

PAGE 22 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 22 of 54
Id at 1143. The court noted that the five oil refineries at issue were responsible for just under six 

percent of total greenhouse gas emissions produced in the state of Washington, and quoted the state's 

expe1i's declaration that the effect of those emissions on global climate change was "scientifically 

indiscernible, given the emission levels, the dispersal ofGHGs world-wide, and the absence of any 

meaningful nexus between Washington refinery emissions and global GHG concentrations now or 

as projected in the future." Id. at 1144 (quotation marks omitted). The comi concluded the "causal 

chain [wa]s too tenuous to support standing." Id 

This case is distinguishable from Bellon in two important respects. First, the procedmal 

postme is different. In Bellon, the appeal was taken from a grant of summaiy judgment. Id at 1138. 

That procedural postme is underscored by the court's reliance on expert declarations in rendering 

its decision. Plaintiffs have alleged a causal relationship between their injmies and defendants' 

conduct. At this stage, I am bound to accept those allegations as true. This rule appropriately 

acknowledges the limits of the judiciaiy's expertise: at the motion to dismiss stage, a federal cou1i 

is in no position to say it is impossible to introduce evidence to suppo1i a well-pleaded causal 

connection. See Connecticut v. Am. Elec. Power Co., Inc., 582 F.3d 309, 347 (2d Cir. 2009) 

(holding that causation in climate change cases is "best left to the rigors of evidentiary proof at a 

future stage of the proceedings, rather than dispensed with as a threshold question of constitutional 

standing"), rev'd on other grounds, Am. E/ec. Power Co., Inc. v. Connecticut, 564 U.S. 410, 429 

(2011). I note, too, that climate science is constantly evolving. See Kirsten Engel & Jonathan 

Overpeck, Adaptation and the Courtroom: Judging Climate Science, 3 Mich. J. Envt'I & Admin. 

L. 1, 25 (2013) (although "climate impacts at the regional and local levels are subject, among other 

things, to the uncertainties of downscaling techniques[,] ... our knowledge of the climate is 

PAGE 23 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 23 of 54
developing at a breakneck pace.") As a result, I cannot interpret Bellon - which relied on a 

summaty judgment record developed more than five years ago - to forever close the courthouse 

doors to climate change claims. 

Second, the emissions at issue in this case, unlike the emissions at issue in Bellon, make up 

a significant share of global emissions. In Bellon, as noted, the five oil refineries were responsible 

for just under six percent of the greenhouse gas emissions generated in the state of Washington. The 

Ninth Circuit recently explained that in Bellon, "causation was lacking because the defendant oil 

refineries were such minor contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, and the independent third-pmiy 

causes of climate change were so numerous, that the contribution of the defendant oil refineries was 

'scientifically undiscernable. "' WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Dep 't of Agric., 795 F.3d 1148, 1158 

(9th Cir. 2015) (quoting Bellon, 732 F.3d at 1144). Here, by contrast, plaintiffs' chain of causation 

rests on the core allegation that defendants are responsible for a substantial share of worldwide 

greenhouse gas emissions. Plaintiffs allege that over the 263 years between 1751and2014, the 

United States produced more than twenty-five percent of global C02 emissions. First Am. Comp!. 

~ 151. Greenhouse gas emissions produced in the United States continue to increase. Id. ~ 152. 

In 2012, the United States was the second largest producer and consumer of energy in the world. 

Id. ~ 160. Bellon's reasoning, which rested on a determination the oil refineries were "minor 

contributors" to climate change, does not apply. WildEarth Guardians, 795 F.3d at 1158. 

The government broadly asserts that Bellon rejected "the argument that allegations that a 

source 'contributed' to climate change are sufficient to satisfy Article III' s causation requirement[.]" 

Fed. Defs.' Mem. of Points & Auth. in Supp. of Mot. Dismiss at 12 (doc. 27-1). Not so. Bellon 

rejected-al the summmy judgment stage- "vague, conclusmy" statements purporting to establish 

PAGE 24 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 24 of 54
a causal relationship between the emissions of five refineries and the plaintiffs' injuries. 732 F.3d 

at 1142. Although the Constitution did not require the Bellon plaintiffs to "connect each molecule 

to their injuries," it demanded more than "simply saying that the Agencies have failed to curb 

emission of greenhouse gases, which contribute (in some undefined way and to some undefined 

degree) to their injuries[.]" Id. at 1142-43. 

The causal chain alleged by plaintiffs here is concluso1y, but that is because they have not 

yet had the opportunity to present evidence. And unlike in Bellon, plaintiffs' causation allegations 

are not vague. At oral argument, plaintiffs explained that their theory of causation has two 

components. The first relates to defendants' affirmative acts. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that 

fossil fuel combustion accounts for approximately ninety-four percent of United States C02 

emissions. First Am. Comp!.~ 158. Defendants lease public lands for oil, gas, and coal production; 

undercharge royalties in connection with those leases; provide tax breaks to companies to encourage 

fossil fuel development; permit the import and export of fossil fuels; and incentivize the purchase 

ofsp01tutilityvehicles. Id.~~ 164, 166, 171, 173, 181, 190. Here, thechainofcausationis: fossil 

fuel combustion accounts for the lion's share of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the United 

States; defendants have the power to increase or decrease those emissions; and defendants use that 

power to engage in a variety of activities that actively cause and promote higher levels of fossil fuel 

combustion. 

The second component of plaintiffs' causation the01y involves defendants' failure to act in 

areas where they have authority to do so. Plaintiffs allege that together, power plants and 

transportation produce nearly two-thirds of C02 emissions in the United States. Id. ~ 115 

(transportation produces approximately twenty-seven percent of annual emissions); id. ~ 125 (power 

PAGE 25 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 25 of 54
plants produce roughly thirty-seven percent of annual emissions). Plaintiffs also allege DOT and 

EPA have broad power to set emissions standards in these sectors. So the chain of causation is: 

DOT and EPA have jurisdiction over sectors producing sixty-four percent of United States 

emissions, which in turn constitute roughly fourteen percent of emissions worldwide; they allow high 

emissions levels by failing to set demanding standards; high emissions levels cause climate change; 

and climate change causes plaintiffs' injuries. 

Each link in these causal chains may be difficult to prove, but the "spectre of difficulty down 

the road does not inform [the] justiciability determination at this early stage of the proceedings." 

Alperin, 410 F.3d at 539. At the pleading stage, plaintiffs have adequately alleged a causal link 

between defendants' conduct and the asserted injuries. 

C. Redressability 

The final prong of the standing inquiry is redressability. The causation and redressability 

prongs of the standing inqui1y "overlap and are two facets of a single causation requirement." 

Bellon, 732 F.3d at 1146 (citation and quotation marks omitted). They are distinct in that causation 

"examines the connection between the alleged misconduct and injmy, whereas redressability 

analyzes the connection between the alleged inju1y and requested judicial relief." Id A plaintiff 

need not show a favorable decision is ce11ain to redress his inju1y, but must show a substantial 

likelihood it will do so. Id It is sufficient for the redressability inquiry to show that the requested 

remedy would "slow or reduce" the harm. Massachusetts, 549 U.S. at 525 (citing Larson v. Valente, 

456 U.S. 228, 243 n.15 (1982)). 

The declarato1y and iajunctive relief plaintiffs request meets this standard. Most notably, 

plaintiffs ask this Court to "[ o ]rder Defendants to prepare and implement an enforceable national 

PAGE 26 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 26 of 54
remedial plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down excess atmospheric C02[.J" First 

Am. Comp!. ~ 94. If plaintiffs can show, as they have alleged, that defendants have control over a 

quarter of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions, and that a reduction in those emissions would 

reduce atmospheric C02 and slow climate change, then plaintiffs' requested relief would redress 

their injuries. 

Bellon is not to the contraty. In Bellon, the court concluded the plaintiff's injuries would 

continue unabated even if the five oil refineries shut down, repeating its conclusion that the effect 

of the emissions produced by those refineries on global emissions levels was "scientifically 

indiscernable." 732 F.3d at 1147 (quotation marks omitted). Thus, Bellon's redressability holding, 

like its causation holding, rested on a factor not present here: that the defendants were minor 

contributors to global climate change. Accordingly, Bellon's reasoning does not apply. 

Defendants and intervenors essentially argue that because many entities contribute to global 

watming, an injunction operating on one entity- even a major player- would offer no guarantee 

of an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. But whether the Court could guarantee an 

overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is the wrong inquity for at least two reasons. First, 

redressability does not require certainty, it requires only a substantial likelihood that the Court could 

provide meaningful relief. Second, the possibility that some other individual or entity might later 

cause the same injury does not defeat standing - the question is whether the injury caused by the 

defendant can be redressed. 

Redressability in this case is scientifically complex, particularly in light of the specter of 

"ineversible climate change,'' wherein greenhouse gas emissions above a certain level push the 

planet past "points of no return, beyond which ineversible consequences become inevitable, out of 

PAGE 27 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 27 of 54
humanity's control." Hansen Deel. if 13 & Ex. 2 at 13 Sept. 10, 2015 (docs. 7-1 & 7-3) (quotation 

marks omitted). This raises a host of questions, among them: What part of plaintiffs' injuries are 

attributable to causes beyond this Court's control? Even if emissions increase elsewhere, will the 

magnitude of plaintiffs' injuries be less if they obtain the relief they seek in this lawsuit? When 

would we reach this point of no return, and do defendants have it within their power to avert 

reaching it even without cooperation from third parties? All of these questions are inextricably 

bound up in the causation inquity, and none of them can be answered at the motion to dismiss stage. 

Plaintiffs ask this Court to "order Defendants to cease their permitting, authorizing, and 

subsidizing of fossil fuels and, instead, move to swiftly phase out C02 emissions, as well as take 

such other action necessmy to ensure that atmospheric C02 is no more concentrated than 350 ppm 

by 2100, including to develop a national plan to restore Earth's energy balance, and implement that 

national plan so as to stabilize the climate system." First Am. Comp!. if 12 (emphasis omitted). 

Construing the complaint in plaintiffs' favor, they allege that this relief would at least partially 

redress their asserted injuries. Youth plaintiffs have adequately alleged they have standing to sue.5 

III. Due Process Claims6 

The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution bars the 

federal government from depriving a person of "life, liberty, or property" without "due process of 

5 Defendants and intervenors also challenge the standing of future generations plaintiffs 

on a number of grounds. It is not necessmy to address these arguments because once a federal 

court concludes one plaintiff has standing, it need not determine whether the remaining plaintiffs 

have standing. Nat'! Ass'n of Optometrists & Opticians LensCrafters, Inc. v. Brown, 567 F.3d 

521, 523 (9th Cir. 2009). 

6 Plaintiffs' due process claims encompass asserted equal protection violations and 

violations of unenumerated rights secured by the Ninth Amendment. For simplicity's sake, this 

opinion refers to these claims collectively as "due process claims." 

PAGE 28 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 28 of 54
law." U.S. Const. amend. V. Plaintiffs allege defendants have violated their due process rights by 

"directly caus[ing] atmospheric C02 to rise to levels that dangerously interfere with a stable climate 

system required alike by our nation and Plaintiffs[,]" First Am. Comp!. ~ 279; "knowingly 

endanger[ing] Plaintiffs' health and welfare by approving and promoting fossil fuel development, 

including exploration, extraction, production, transportation, importation, exportation, and 

combustion," id. ~ 280; and, "[ a]fter knowingly creating this dangerous situation for Plaintiffs, ... 

continu[ing] to knowingly enhance that danger by allowing fossil fuel production, consumption, and 

combustion at dangerous levels," id. ~ 284. 

Defendants and intervenors challenge plaintiffs' due process claims on two grounds. First, 

they assert any challenge to defendants' affirmative actions (i.e. leasing land, issuing permits) cannot 

proceed because plaintiffs have failed to identify infringement of a fundamental right or 

discrimination against a suspect class of persons. Second, they argue plaintiffs cannot challenge 

defendants' inaction (i.e., failure to prevent third parties from emitting C02 at dangerous levels) 

because defendants have no affirmative duty to protect plaintiffs from climate change. 

A. Infringement of a Fundamental Right 

When a plaintiff challenges affirmative government action under the due process clause, the 

threshold inquity is the applicable level of judicial scrutiny. Witt v. Dep 't of the Air Force, 527 F.3d 

806, 813 (9th Cir. 2008). The default level of scrutiny is rational basis, which requires a reviewing 

couit to uphold the challenged governmental action so long as it "implements a rational means of 

achieving a legitimate governmental end[.]" Kim v. United States, 121F.3d1269, 1273 (9th Cir. 

1997) (quotation marks omitted). When the government infringes a "fundamental right," however, 

a reviewing court applies strict scrutiny. Witt, 527 F.3d at 817. Substantive due process "forbids 

PAGE 29 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 29 of 54
the government to infringe ce1tain 'fundamental' liberty interests at all, no matter what process is 

provided, unless the infringement is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest." Reno 

v. Flores, 507 U.S. 292, 302 (1993) (emphasis in original). It appears undisputed by plaintiffs, and 

in any event is clear to this Coutt, that defendants' affirmative actions would survive rational basis 

review. Resolution of this part of the motions to dismiss therefore hinges on whether plaintiffs have 

alleged infringement of a fundamental right.7 

Fundamental libetty rights include both rights enumerated elsewhere in the Constitution and 

rights and libetties which are either (1) "deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition" or (2) 

"fundamental to our scheme of ordered libe1ty[.]" McDonaldv. City of Chicago, Ill., 561 U.S. 742, 

767(2010) (internal citations, quotations, and emphasis omitted). The Supreme Court has cautioned 

that federal courts must "exercise the utmost care whenever we are asked to break new ground in this 

field, lest the libetty protected by the Due Process Clause be subtly transfotmed into" judicial policy 

preferences. Washington v. G/ucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 720 (1997) (citation and quotation marks 

omitted). 

This does not mean that "new" fundamental rights are out of bounds, though. When the 

Supreme Court broke new legal ground by recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, 

Justice Kennedy wrote that 

The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times. The 

generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights ... did not presume to know the 

extent of freedom in all its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations 

7 Strict scrutiny also is triggered by an allegation that the government discriminated on the 

basis of a suspect classification, regardless of whether the government action infringed a 

fundamental right. Green v. City of Tucson, 340 F.3d 891, 896 (9th Cir. 2003). Because I 

conclude that plaintiffs have alleged a violation of their fundamental rights, I need not address 

whether youth or future generations are suspect classifications for equal protection purposes. 

PAGE 30 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 30 of 54
a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning. 

When new insight reveals discord between the Constitution's central protections and 

a received legal stricture, a claim to libetty must be addressed. 

Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 2598 (2015). Thus, "[t]he identification and protection of 

fundamental rights is an enduring part of the judicial duty to interpret the Constitution ... [that] has 

not been reduced to any formula." Id. (citation and quotation marks omitted). In determining 

whether a right is fundamental, courts must exercise "reasoned judgment," keeping in mind that 

"[h ]istoty and tradition guide and discipline this inquity but do not set its outer boundaries." Id. The 

genius of the Constitution is that its text allows "future generations [to] protect ... the right of all 

persons to enjoy libetty as we learn its meaning." Id. 

Often, an unenumerated fundamental right draws on more than one Constitutional source. 

The idea is that certain rights may be necessaty to enable the exercise of other rights, whether 

enumerated or unenumerated. In Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 152-53 (1973), the Court exhaustively 

chronicled the jurisprudential histoty of the fundamental right to privacy - another right not 

mentioned in the text of the Constitution. Roe's central holding rests on the Due Process Clause of 

the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. at 153. But the Court also found "roots" of the right to privacy in 

the First Amendment, the Fou1th Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, the penumbras of the Bill of 

Rights, and the Ninth Amendment. Id. at 152. Similarly, in Obergefell, the Comt's recognition of 

a fundamental right to many was grounded in an understanding of marriage as a right underlying and 

suppotting other vital liberties. See 135 S. Ct. at 2599 ("[I]t would be contradictory to recognize a 

right to privacy with respect to other matters of family life and not with respect to the decision to 

enter the relationship that is at the foundation of the family in our society." (citation and quotation 

marks omitted)); id. at 2601 ("[M]arriage is a keystone of our social order."). 

PAGE 31 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 31 of 54
Exercising my "reasoned judgment," id at 2598, I have no doubt that the right to a climate 

system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society. Just as 

marriage is the "foundation of the family," a stable climate system is quite literally the foundation 

"of society, without which there would be neither civilization nor progress." Id (quoting Maynard 

v. Hill, 125 U.S. 190, 211 (1888)); cf Minors Oposa v. Sec'y of the Dep't o/Envt'l &Natural Res., 

G.R. No. 101083, 33 I.L.M. 173, 187-88 (S.C., Jul. 30, 1993) (Phil.) (without "a balanced and 

healthful ecology," future generations "stand to inherit nothing but parched earth incapable of 

sustaining life."). 

Defendants and intervenors contend plaintiffs are asserting a right to be free from pollution 

or climate change, and that courts have consistently rejected attempts to define such rights as 

fundamental. Defendants and intervenors mischaracterize the right plaintiffs assert. Plaintiffs do 

not object to the government's role in producing any pollution or in causing any climate change; 

rather, they assett the government has caused pollution and climate change on a catastrophic level, 

and that if the government's actions continue unchecked, they will permanently and irreversibly 

damage plaintiffs' propetty, their economic livelihood, their recreational opp01tunities, their health, 

and ultimately their (and their children's) ability to live long, healthy lives. Echoing Obergefell's 

reasoning, plaintiffs allege a stable climate system is a necessaty condition to exercising other rights 

to life, liberty, and property. 

In framing the fundamental right at issue as the right to a climate system capable of 

sustaining human life, I intend to strike a balance and to provide some protection against the 

constitutionalization of all environmental claims. On the one hand, the phrase "capable of sustaining 

human life" should not be read to require a plaintiff to allege that governmental action will result in 

PAGE 32 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 32 of 54
the extinction of humans as a species. On the other hand, acknowledgment of this fundamental right 

does not transform any minor or even moderate act that contributes to the warming of the planet into 

a constitutional violation. In this opinion, this Court simply holds that where a complaint alleges 

governmental action is affirmatively and substantially damaging the climate system in a way that will 

cause human deaths, shorten human lifespans, result in widespread damage to property, threaten 

human food sources, and dramatically alter the planet's ecosystem, it states a claim for a due process 

violation. To hold otherwise would be to say that the Constitution affords no protection against a 

government's knowing decision to poison the air its citizens breathe or the water its citizens drink. 

Plaintiffs have adequately alleged infringement of a fundamental right. 

B. "Danger Creation" Challenge to Inaction 

With limited exceptions, the Due Process Clause does not impose on the government an 

affirmative obligation to act, even when "such aid may be necessary to secure life, liberty, or 

propetty interests of which the government itself may not deprive the individual." DeShaney v. 

Winnebago Cnty. Dep 't of Soc. Servs., 489 U.S. 189, 196 (1989). This rule is subject to two 

exceptions: "(1) the 'special relationship' exception; and (2) the 'danger creation' exception." L. W. 

v. Grubbs, 974 F.2d 119, 121 (9th Cir. 1992). The "special relationship" exception provides that 

when the government takes an individual into custody against his or her will, it assumes some 

responsibility to ensure that individual's safety. Id. The "danger creation" exception permits a 

substantive due process claim when government conduct "places a person in peril in deliberate 

indifference to their safety[.]" Peni/la v. City of Huntington Park, 115 F.3d 707, 709 (9th Cir. 1997). 

Plaintiffs purport to challenge the government's failure to limit third-party C02 emissions pursuant 

to the danger creation DeShaney exception. 

PAGE 33 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 33 of 54
In the Ninth Circuit, a plaintiff challenging government inaction on a danger creation theory 

must first show the "state actor create[ d] or expose[ d] an individual to a danger which he or she 

would not have otherwise faced." Kennedy v. City of Ridgefield, 439 F.3d 1055, 1061 (9th Cir. 

2006). The state action must place the plaintiff "in a worse position than that in which he would 

have been had the state not acted at all." Pauluk v. Savage, 836 F.3d 1117, 1125 (9th Cir. 2016) 

(quotation marks omitted and alterations normalized). Second, the plaintiff must show the "state 

actor ... recognize[ d]" the unreasonable risks to the plaintiff and "actually intend[ ed] to expose the 

plaintiff to such risks without regard to the consequences to the plaintiff." Campbell v. Wash. Dep 't 

of Soc. & Health Servs., 671 F.3d 837, 846 (9th Cir. 2011) (brackets and quotation marks omitted). 

The defendant must have acted with"[ d]eliberate indifference," which "requires a culpable mental 

state more than gross negligence." Pauluk, 836 F.3d at 1125 (quotation marks omitted). 

Plaintiffs allege that "[a]cting with full appreciation of the consequences of their acts, 

Defendants knowingly caused, and continue to cause, dangerous interference with our atmosphere 

and climate system." First Am. Comp!. ii 85. They allege this danger stems, "in substantial part, 

[from] Defendants' historic and continuing permitting, authorizing, and subsidizing of fossil fuel 

extraction, production, transportation, and utilization." Id. ii 279. Plaintiffs allege defendants acted 

"with full appreciation" of the consequences of their acts, id. iii! 278-79, specifically "[harm to] 

Plaintiffs' dignity, including their capacity to provide for their basic human needs, safely raise 

families, practice their religious and spiritual beliefs, maintain their bodily integrity, and lead lives 

with access to clean air, water, shelter, and food." Id. ii 283. In the face of these risks, plaintiffs 

allege defendants "have had longstanding, actual knowledge of the serious risks of harm and have 

failed to take necessary steps to address and ameliorate the known, serious risk to which they have 

PAGE 34 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 34 of 54
exposed Plaintiffs." Id. 'if 285. In sum: plaintiffs allege defendants played a unique and central role 

in the creation of our current climate crisis; that they contributed to the crisis with full knowledge 

of the significant and unreasonable risks posed by climate change;8 and that the Due Process Clause 

therefore imposes a special duty on defendants to use their statutory and regulatory authority to 

reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Accepting the allegations of the complaint as true, plaintiffs have 

adequately alleged a danger creation claim. 

Defendants argue the DeShaney exceptions are inapplicable when the actor is the federal 

government rather than a state government. It is true that DeShaney was a section 1983 case and that 

the Ninth Circuit cases interpreting the DeShaney exceptions are also section 1983 cases. But in 

DeShaney, the Supreme Court was mapping the contours of the Due Process Clause, not section 

1983. Defendants have cited no case or legal principle to justify limiting DeShaney to the section 

1983 context. 

Next, defendants contend application of the DeShaney danger creation exception in this 

context would permit plaintiffs to "raise a substantive due process claim to challenge vittually any 

government program" - for example, to challenge foreign policy decisions that heighten or 

exacerbate international tensions, or to health and safety regulations the plaintiff deems insufficiently 

8 At oral argument, plaintiffs supplied the Comt with a timeline documenting purported 

evidence of defendants' knowledge of climate change. The timeline, which dates back to 1955, 

includes the 1988 testimony of Dr. James Hansen before the Senate Committee on Energy and 

Natural Resources. Dr. Hansen, who appears in this lawsuit as a guardian for his granddaughter 

and for future generations, testified about rising global temperatures and their relationship to 

human activity. First Session on the Greenhouse Effect and Global Climate Change Before the 

Comm. on Energy & Natural Res., lOOth Cong. 39 (1988). He urged legislators to take action to 

limit greenhouse gas emissions. Id. at 158. Dr. Hansen's testimony was preceded by a statement 

from Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, who bemoaned, "We're not going to have a lot of 

political support for this. Nobody wants to take on the automobile industry. Nobody wants to 

take on any of the industries that produce the things we throw up into the atmosphere." Id. at 38. 

PAGE 35 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 35 of 54
stringent. Fed. Defs.' Obj. 18. Defendants fail to recognize that DeShaney imposes rigorous proof 

requirements. A plaintiff asse1ting a danger-creation due process claim must show (1) the 

government's acts created the danger to the plaintiff; (2) the government knew its acts caused that 

danger; and (3) the government with deliberate indifference failed to act to prevent the alleged harm. 

These stringent standards are sufficient safeguards against the flood oflitigation concerns raised by 

defendants - indeed, they pose a significant challenge for plaintiffs in this ve1y lawsuit. 9 

Questions about difficulty of proof, however, must be left for another day. At the motion to 

dismiss stage, I am bound to accept the factual allegations in the complaint as true. Plaintiffs have 

alleged that defendants played a significant role in creating the current climate crisis, that defendants 

acted with full knowledge of the consequences of their actions, and that defendants have failed to 

correct or mitigate the harms they helped create in deliberate indifference to the injuries caused by 

climate change. They may therefore proceed with their substantive due process challenge to 

defendants' failure to adequately regulate CO, emissions. 

IV. Public Trust Claims 

In its broadest sense, the term "public trust" refers to the fundamental understanding that no 

government can legitimately abdicate its core sovereign powers. See Stone v. Mississippi, 101 U.S. 

814, 820 (1879) ("[T]he power of governing is a trust committed by the people to the government, 

no pait of which can be granted away.") The public trust doctrine rests on the fundamental principle 

that"[ e ]ve1y succeeding legislature possesses the same jurisdiction and power with respect to [the 

public interest] as its predecessors." Newton v. Mahoning Cnty. Comm 'rs, 100 U.S. 548, 559 (1879). 

9 There are other barriers to asserting defendants' hypothetical danger-creation claims. 

For example, as discussed in Part I of this opinion, the political question doctrine sharply limits 

judicial review of decisions inherently entangled with the conduct of foreign relations. 

PAGE 36 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 36 of 54
The doctrine conceives of certain powers and obligations - for example, the police power - as 

inherent aspects of sovereignty. Id. at 554. Permitting the government to permanently give one of 

these powers to another entity runs afoul of the public trust doctrine because it diminishes the power 

of future legislatures to promote the general welfare. 

Plaintiffs' public trust claims arise from the particular application of the public trust doctrine 

to essential natural resources. With respect to these core resources, the sovereign's public trust 

obligations prevent it from "depriving a future legislature of the natural resources necessary to 

provide forthe well-being and survival ofits citizens." Br. of Amici Curiae Global Catholic Climate 

Movement and Leadership Council of Women Religious at 3 (footnote omitted) (doc. 51-1). 

Application of the public trust doctrine to natural resources predates the United States of America. 

Its roots are in the Institutes ofJustinian, pati of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the body of Roman law that 

is the "foundation for modern civil law systems." Timothy G. Kearley, Justice Fred Blume and the 

Translation of Justinian's Code, 99 Law Libr. J. 525, if 1 (2007). The Institutes of Justinian declared 

"the following things are by natural law common to all - the air, running water, the sea, and 

consequently the seashore." J. Inst. 2.1.1 (J.B. Moyle trans.). The doctrine made its way to the 

United States through the English common law. See Idaho v. Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho, 521 

U.S. 261, 284 (1997) ("American law adopted as its own much of the English law respecting 

navigable waters, including the principle that submerged lands are held for a public purpose."); 

Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mississippi, 484 U.S. 469, 473 (1988) ("At common law, the title and 

dominion in lands flowed by the tide water were in the King for the benefit of the nation ... Upon 

the American Revolution, these rights, charged with a like trust, were vested in the original States 

within their respective borders[.]" (quotingShivelyv. Bowlby, 152 U.S. 1, 57 (1894)); JosephL. Sax, 

PAGE 37 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 37 of 54
The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial Intervention, 68 Mich. L. 

Rev. 471, 475-76 (1970) (discussing the histo1y of the public trust doctrine in the United States). 

The first comt in this country to address the applicability of the public trust doctrine to 

natural resources was the New Jersey Supreme Comi, in 1821. The court explained that public trust 

assets were pa1t of a taxonomy of prope1ty: 

Every thing susceptible of prope1ty is considered as belonging to the nation 

that possesses the countty, as forming the entire mass of its wealth. But the nation 

does not possess all those things in the same manner. By ve1y far the greater patt of 

them are divided among the individuals of the nation, and become private property. 

Those things not divided among the individuals still belong to the nation, and are 

called public property. Of these, again, some are reserved for the necessities of the 

state, and are used for the public benefit, and those are called "the domain of the 

crown or of the republic," others remain common to all the citizens, who take of 

them and use them, each according to his necessities, and according to the laws 

which regulate their use, and are called common property. Of this latter kind, 

according to the writers upon the law of nature and of nations, and upon the civil law, 

are the air, the running water, the sea, the fish, and the wild beasts. 

Arnold v. Mundy, 6 N.J.L. 1, 71 (N.J. 1821) (emphasis in original). 

The seminal United States Supreme Court case on the public ttust is Illinois Central Railroad 

Company v. Illinois, 146 U.S. 387 (1892). The Illinois legislature had conveyed to the Illinois 

Central Railroad Company title to part of the submerged lands beneath the harbor of Chicago, with 

the intent to give the company control over the waters above the submerged lands "against any future 

exercise of power over them by the state." Id. at 452. The Supreme Court held the legislature's 

attempt to give up its title to lands submerged beneath navigable waters was either void on its face 

or always subject to revocation. Id. at 453. "The state can no more abdicate its trust over prope1ty 

in which the whole people are interested, like navigable waters and soils under them ... than it can 

abdicate its police powers in the administration of government and the preservation of the peace." 

PAGE 38-0PINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 38 of 54
Id In light of the "immense value" the harbor of Chicago carried for the people of Illinois, the "idea 

that its legislature can deprive the state of control over its bed and waters, and place the same in the 

hands of a private corporation" could not "be defended." Id. at 454. 

The natural resources trust operates according to basic trust principles, which impose upon 

the trustee a fiduciary duty to "protect the trust property against damage or destruction." George G. 

Bogett et al., Bogert's Trusts and Ttustees, § 582 (2016). The trustee owes this duty equally to both 

current and future beneficiaries of the trust. Restatement (Second) ofTrusts § 183 (1959). In natural 

resources cases, the trust property consists of a set of resources important enough to the people to 

warrant public trust protection. See Mary C. Wood, A Nature's Trust: Environmental Law for a 

New Ecological Age 167-75 (2014). The government, as trustee, has a fiduciaty duty to protect the 

trust assets from damage so that current and future trust beneficiaries will be able to enjoy the 

benefits of the trust. Id. The public trust doctrine is generally thought to impose three types of 

restrictions on governmental authority: 

[F]irst, the propetty subject to the trust must not only be used for a public purpose, 

but it must be held available for use by the general public; second, the property may 

not be sold, even for a fair cash equivalent; and third, the propetty must be 

maintained for particular types of uses. 

JosephL. Sax, The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial Intervention, 

68 Mich. L. Rev. 471, 477 (1970). 

This lawsuit is part of a wave of recent environmental cases assetting state and national 

governments have abdicated their responsibilities under the public trust doctrine. See, e.g., Alec L. 

v. Jackson, 863 F. Supp. 2d 11(D.D.C.2012); Sanders-Reed ex rel. Sanders-Reedv. Martinez, 350 

P.3d 1221 (N.M. Ct. App. 2015); Kanukex rel. Kanukv. State, Dep 't of Natural Res., 335 P.3d 1088 

PAGE 39- OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 39 of 54
(Alaska 2014); Chernaik v. Kitzhaber, 328 P.3d 799 (Or. Ct. App. 2014). These lawsuits depart 

from the "traditional" public trust litigation model, which generally centers on the second restriction, 

the prohibition against alienation of a public trust asset. Instead, plaintiffs assert defendants have 

violated their duties as trustees by nominally retaining control over trust assets while actually 

allowing their depletion and destruction, effectively violating the first and third restrictions by 

excluding the public from use and enjoyment of public resources. 

Defendants and intervenors argue the public trust doctrine has no application in this case. 

They advance four arguments: (1) the atmosphere, the central natural resource at issue in this 

lawsuit, is not a public trust asset; (2) the federal government, unlike the states, has no public trust 

obligations; (3) any common-law public trust claims have been displaced by federal statutes; and ( 4) 

even if there is a federal public trust, plaintiffs lack a right of action to enforce it. I address each 

contention in turn. 

A. Scope of Public Trust Assets 

The complaint alleges defendants violated their duties as trustees by failing to protect the 

atmosphere, water, seas, seashores, and wildlife. First Am. Comp!. iJ 309. Defendants and 

intervenors argue plaintiffs' public trust claims fail because the complaint focuses on harm to the 

atmosphere, which is not a public trust asset. I conclude that it is not necessmy at this stage to 

determine whether the atmosphere is a public trust asset because plaintiffs have alleged violations 

of the public trust doctrine in connection with the territorial sea. 10 

10 To be clear, today's opinion should not be taken to suggest that the atmosphere is not a 

public trust asset. The Institutes of Justinian included the air in the list of assets "by natural law 

common to all." J. Inst. 2.1.l (J.B. Moyle trans.). The New Jersey Supreme Court in Arnold 

similarly included air in its list of"common prope1ty." 6 N.J.L. at 71. Even Supreme Comt case 

law suggests the atmosphere may properly be deemed pmt of the public trust res. See United 

PAGE 40 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 40 of 54
The federal government holds title to the submerged lands between three and twelve miles 

from the coastlines of the United States. See Restatement (Third) of The Foreign Relations Law of 

the United States§ 51 l(a) (1987) (international law permits a nation to claim as its territorial sea an 

area up to twelve miles from its coast); Presidential Proclamation of Dec. 27, 1988, No. 5928, 3 

C.F.R. § 547 (1989) (President Reagan expanding United States' claim from tlu·ee-mile territorial 

sea to twelve-mile territorial sea); 43 U.S.C. § 1312 (seaward boundaty of a coastal state is "a line 

States v. Causby, 328 U.S. 256, 261 (1946) (holding that private rights to airspace have "no place 

in the modern world" because recognition of such claims would "transfer into private ownership 

that to which only the public has a just claim.") The dearth of litigation focusing on atmosphere 

may reflect the limited state of scientific knowledge rather than signal a determination that the air 

is outside the scope of the public trust. See Mary C. Wood, Atmospheric Trust Litigation Across 

the World, in Fiduciaty Duty and the Atmospheric Trust 113 (Ken Coghill et al. Eds. 2012) 

(hypothesizing that the atmosphere does not appear in early public trust case law because air was 

long thought to be indestructible and incapable of privatization). 

Even if the atmosphere was not always considered a public trust asset, some courts have 

concluded the doctrine should "be molded and extended to meet changing conditions and needs 

of the public it was created to benefit.'' Matthews v. Bay Head Improvement Ass'n, 471 A.2d 

355, 365 (N.J. 1984) (citation and quotation marks omitted). Just last year, Judge Hollis Hill 

reasoned that it "misses the point" to mechanically rely on what has been identified as a public 

trust asset in the past because "[t)he navigable waters and the atmosphere are intertwined and to 

argue a separation of the two, or to argue that [greenhouse gas] emissions do not affect navigable 

waters is nonsensical." Foster v. Wash. Dep 't of Ecology, No. 14-2-25295-1, slip op. at 8 (Wash. 

King Cnty. Super. Ct. Nov. 19, 2015). At least one state court has held in recent years that "the 

concept of public natural resources includes not only state-owned lands, waterways, and mineral 

reserves, but also resources that implicate the public interest, such as ambient air, surface and 

ground water, wild flora, and fauna (including fish) that are outside the scope of purely private 

propetty.'' Robinson Twp., Wash. Cnty., Pa. v. Pennsylvania, 83 A.3d 901, 955 (Pa. Sup. Ct. 

2013). 

The Supreme Court arguably endorsed this pragmatic approach to the identification of 

trust assets in Illinois Central, where it held, contraty to English common law, that lakes and 

rivers unaffected by the ebb and flow of the tide could be navigable waters within the meaning of 

the public trust doctrine. 146 U.S. at 436 (English rule for determining navigability would not 

work in the United States, which contains "rivers [that] are navigable for great distances above 

the flow of the tide- indeed, for hundreds of miles"). 

PAGE 41 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 41 of 54
three geographical miles distant from its coast line"). Time and again, the Supreme Court has held 

thatthe public trust doctrine applies to "lands beneath tidal waters." See Phillips Petroleum Co., 484 

U.S. at 474 (discussing Shively, 152 U.S. at 57 and Knight v. US. Land Ass 'n, 142 U.S. 161, 183 

(1891)); Alabama v. Texas, 347 U.S. 272, 278 (1954) (Black, J., dissenting) ("In ocean waters 

bordering our count1y, if nowhere else, day-to-day national power- complete, undivided, flexible, 

and immediately available-is an essential attribute of federal sovereignty."); id. at 282 (Douglas, 

J., dissenting) ("Thus we are dealing here with incidents of national sovereignty .... The authority 

over [the sea] can no more be abdicated than any of the other great powers of the Federal 

Government. It is to be exercised for the benefit of the whole."); see also Joseph L. Sax, The Public 

Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial Intervention, 68 Mich. L. Rev. 471, 556 

(1970) (public trust law covers "that aspect of the public domain below the low-water mark on the 

margin of the sea and the great lakes, the waters over those lands, and the waters within rivers and 

streams of any consequence"). Because a number of plaintiffs' injuries relate to the effects of ocean 

acidification and rising ocean temperatures,' 1 they have adequately alleged harm to public trust 

assets. 

11 See, e.g., First Am. Comp!.~ 16 ("An impo1tant patt of Kelsey's diet includes food that 

comes from the marine waters and freshwater rivers, including salmon, cod, tuna, clams, 

mussels, and crab."); id. ~ 27 ("Other food sources for Alex, including crab and seafood, are 

negatively impacted by ocean acidification, warming, and sea level rise caused by Defendants."); 

id. ~ 33 ("Ocean acidification caused by Defendants has already begun to adversely impact 

shellfish along the coast, and is predicted to take its toll on crab, mussels, and all shelled 

seafood."); id. ~ 45 ("On the Oregon coast, Sahara enjoys climbing rocks and sand dunes, 

swimming, and tidepooling to see marine life. Sahara's enjoyment of these activities is being 

increasingly harmed in the future by sea level rise, greater erosion, enhanced ocean acidification, 

and increased water temperatures."). 

PAGE 42 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 42 of 54
B. Applicability of Public Trust to the Federal Government 

Defendants and intervenors contend that in the United States, the public trust doctrine applies 

only to the states and not to the federal government. This argument rests primarily on a passing 

statement in PPL Montana, LLC v. Montana, 565 U.S. 576(2012). A close examination of that case 

reveals that it cannot fairly be read to foreclose application of the public trust doctrine to assets 

owned by the federal government. 

PPL Montana was not a public trust case. Its central concern was the equal footing doctrine. 

PPL Montana, LLC used three rivers flowing through the state of Montana for hydroelectric projects. 

Id. at 580. Montana sought rent for the use of the riverbeds, arguing it had gained title to the rivers 

pursuant to the equal footing doctrine when it became a state in 1889. Id. The Montana Supreme 

Court granted summaty judgment on title to Montana. On writ of certiorari to the United States 

Supreme Comt, review hinged on whether the rivers in question were "navigable" in 1889, because 

the "title consequences of the equal-footing doctrine" are that"[ u]pon statehood, the State gains title 

within its borders to the beds of waters then navigable (or tidally influenced .. . )[.]"Id. at 589-90. 

The Comt reversed and remanded, holding that the Montana comts had applied the wrong 

methodology for determining navigability. 

In addition to its main argument that the rivers were navigable, Montana argued that denying 

it title to the riverbeds in dispute would "undermine the public trust doctrine." Id. at 601. The 

Supreme Court rejected this argument in sho1t order: 

Unlike the equal-footing doctrine, ... which is the constitutional foundation for the 

navigability rule ofriverbed title, the public trust doctrine remains a matter of state 

law, subject as well to the federal power to regulate vessels and navigation under the 

Commerce Clause and admiralty power. While equal-footing cases have noted that 

the State takes title to the navigable waters and their beds in trust for the public, the 

PAGE 43 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 43 of 54
contours of that public trust do not depend upon the Constitution. Under accepted 

principles of federalism, the States retain residual power to determine the scope of 

the public trust over waters within their borders, while federal law determines 

riverbed title under the equal-footing doctrine. 

Id at 603 (citations omitted). 

Defendants and intervenors take the phrase "the public trust doctrine remains a matter of state 

law," and interpret it in isolation to foreclose all federal public trust claims. That is not a plausible 

interpretation of PPL Montana. The Coutt was simply stating that federal law, not state law, 

determined whether Montana has title to the riverbeds, and that if Montana had title, state law would 

define the scope of Montana's public trust obligations. PPL Montana said nothing at all about the 

viability of federal public trust claims with respect to federally-owned trust assets. 

In a string citation, PPL Montana cited Coeur d'Alene, 521 U.S. at 285, and Appleby v. City 

a/New York, 271U.S.364, 395 (1926), forthe proposition that Illinois Central"was necessarily a 

statement of Illinois law." 132 S. Ct. at 1235. That statement is not surprising given the nature of 

the public trust doctrine. Public trust obligations are inherent aspects of sovereignty; it follows that 

any case applying the public trust doctrine to a particular state is necessarily a statement of that 

state's law rather than a statement of the law of another sovereign. In Coeur d'Alene, the Supreme 

Coutt explained that even though Illinois Central interpreted Illinois law, its central tenets could be 

applied broadly (for example, to Idaho) because it "invoked the principle in American law 

recognizing the weighty public interests in submerged lands." 521 U.S. at 285. The Court then 

detailed how the American public trust doctrine, which has diverged from the English public trust 

doctrine in important ways, has developed as "a natural outgrowth of the perceived public character 

of submerged lands, a perception which underlies and informs the principle that these lands are tied 

PAGE 44 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 44 of 54
in a unique way to sovereignty." Id. at 286. There is no reason why the central tenets of Illinois 

Central should apply to another state, but not to the federal government. 

Defendants and intervenors also contend recognizing a federal public trust claim is contraty 

to United States v. 32.42 Acres of Land, More or Less, Located in San Diego County, California, 

683 F.3d 1030, 1038 (9th Cir. 2012), which repeated PPL Afontana' s statement that "the public trust 

doctrine remains a matter of state law" in concluding that the federal government's eminent domain 

powers trumped any state-law public trust concerns. That case did not foreclose a federal public trust 

claim, however, because the Ninth Circuit expressly declined to address the viability of the federal 

public trust the district co mt imposed on the federal government after it ruled the land could be taken 

pursuant to eminent domain. Id. at 1033 & 1039 n.2. 

In 2012, the federal district comt for the District of Columbia held the public trust doctrine 

does not apply to the federal government. Alec L. was substantially similar to the instant action: five 

youth plaintiffs and two environmental advocacy organizations sued a variety of heads of federal 

agencies, alleging the defendants had "wasted and failed to preserve and protect the atmosphere 

Public Trust asset." 863 F. Supp. 2d at 12. The court dismissed the suit with prejudice, holding the 

plaintiffs' federal public trust claims were foreclosed by PPL Montana's statement that "the public 

trust doctrine remains a mater of state law." Id. at 15 (quotingPPLMontana, 565 U.S. at 603). The 

court also relied on the D.C. Circuit's observation that '"[i]n this country the public trust doctrine 

has developed almost exclusively as a matter of state law."' Id. (quoting District of Columbia v. Air 

Florida, Inc., 750 F.2d 1077, 1082 (D.C. Cir. 1984)). In an unpublished memorandum decision, the 

D.C. Circuit affirmed, holding that "[t]he Supreme Court in PPL lvfontana ... directly and 

categorically rejected any federal constitutional foundation for that doctrine, without qualification 

PAGE 45 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 45 of 54
or reservation." Alec L. ex rel. Loorz v. McCarthy, 561 F. App'x 7, 8 (D.C. Cir. 2014). 

I am not persuaded by the reasoning of the Alec L. courts. As explained above, a close 

reading of PPL Montana reveals that it says nothing about the viability of federal public trust claims. 

And in Air Florida, the D.C. Circuit emphasized that "we imply no opinion regarding either the 

applicability of the public trust doctrine to the federal government or the appropriateness of using 

the doctrine to afford trustees a means for recovering from tortfeasors the cost of restoring public 

waters to their pre-injury condition." 750 F.2d at 1084. 

Two federal courts - the district courts for the Northern District of California and the 

District of Massachusetts - have concluded the public trust doctrine applies to the federal 

government. The decisions, from the 1980s, concerned the federal government's acquisition of 

various state-owned public trust assets - for example, submerged land beneath navigable rivers or 

tidelands -through the power of eminent domain. The courts held that the federal government has 

no public trust obligations under state law, but does take the land subject to a federal public ttust. 

As one court explained, "[t]he trust is of such a nature that it can be held only by the sovereign, and 

can only be destroyed by the destruction of the sovereign." United States v. 1.58 Acres of Land 

Situated in the City of Boston, Suffolk Cnty., Mass., 523 F. Supp. 120, 124 (D. Mass. 1981). 

Through eminent domain, the federal government "may take property ... in 'full fee simple' insofar 

as no other principal may hold a greater right to such land. It must be recognized, however, that the 

federal government is as restricted as the Commonwealth in its ability to abdicate to private 

individuals" its title to the land. Jd. at 124-25. In other words, "[b]y condemnation, the United 

States simply acquires the land subject to the public trust as though no party had held an interest in 

the land before." City of Alameda v. Todd Shipyards Corp., 635 F. Supp. 1447, 1450 (N.D. Cal. 

PAGE 46 - OPINION AND ORDER 
1986). 32. 42 Acres of Land is wholly consistent with these opinions; in that case, the Ninth Circuit 

held that when the federal government condemns state land, it takes title free and clear of any state 

public trust obligations - and that to hold otherwise would violate the Supremacy Clause by 

subjugating the federal eminent domain power to state public trust law. 683 F.3d at 1038. As noted, 

however, the court said nothing about the lower court's determination that the condemned tidelands 

had been taken subject to a federal public trust. 32.42 Acres of Land, 683 F.3d at 1033 & 1039 n.2. 

I am persuaded that the City of Alameda and 1.58 Acres of Land courts were conect. Their 

decisions rested on the history of the public trust doctrine and the public trust's unique relationship 

to sovereignty. I can think of no reason why the public trust doctrine, which came to this countty 

through the Roman and English roots of our civil law system, would apply to the states but not to 

the federal government. 

Defendants' final argument is that recognition of a federal public trust doctrine cannot be 

reconciled with Kleppe v. New Mexico, 426 U.S. 529, 539 (1976), in which the Supreme Court stated 

that "[t]he power over public land" entrusted to Congress by the Property Clause of the United States 

Constitution is "without limitations." Again, defendants take the Supreme Court's statement out of 

context. In Kleppe, New Mexico challenged the federal government's authority to regulate and 

protect wild horses and burros, arguing that the Constitution granted Congress only the power to 

"dispose of and make incidental rules regarding the use of federal propetiy" and "the power to 

protect" the federal propetiy itself, i.e., the land but not animals living on it. 426 U.S. at 536. The 

Supreme Court rejected New Mexico's attempt to limit Congress's power to regulate wildlife living 

on federal lands. It is in that context that the Court stated the "power over public land" was "without 

limitations." Id at 539. Indeed, in the ve1y same sentence the Supreme Court acknowledged that 

PAGE 47 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 47 of 54
"the fmthest reaches of the power granted by the Prope1ty Clause have not yet been definitively 

resolved[.]" Id. The Supreme Comt in Kleppe simply did not have before it the question whether 

the Constitution grants the federal government unlimited authority to do whatever it wants with any 

parcel of federal land, regardless of whether its actions violate individual constitutional rights or mn 

afoul of public trust obligations. 

The federal government, like the states, holds public assets - at a minimum, the territorial 

seas - in trust for the people. Plaintiffs' federal public trust claims are cognizable in federal court. 

C. Displacement of Public Trust Claims 

Defendants and intervenors next argue that any common-law public trust claims have been 

displaced by a variety of acts of Congress, including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. 

For this proposition, they rely on American Electric Power Company, Inc. v. Connecticut, 564 U.S. 

410 (2011) ("AEP"). InAEP, the plaintiffs sued five power companies, alleging the companies' C02 

emissions were a public nuisance under federal common law. Id. at 415. The Supreme Comt held 

the nuisance claim could not proceed because "the Clean Air Act and the EPA actions it authorizes 

displace any federal common law right to seek abatement of carbon-dioxide emissions from fossilfuel fired power plants." Id. at 424. 

Defendants and intervenors contend thatAEP controls the displacement analysis. The district 

cou1t in Alec L. agreed with them. 12 The cou1t relied heavily onAEP's statement that the Clean Air 

Act displaces '"any federal common law right'" to challenge C02 emissions, and also discussed at 

length theAEP court's concerns that authorizing a judicial order setting C02 emissions limits would 

require federal judges to make decisions involving competing policy interests - decisions an 

12 The D.C. Circuit did not address the displacement question on appeal. 

PAGE 48 - OPINION AND ORDER 

g
"expert agency 'is surely better equipped to [make] than individual district judges issuing ad hoc, 

case-by-case injunctions."' Alec L., 863 F. Supp. 2d at 16 (quotingAEP, 564 U.S. at 424, 428). 

I am not persuaded by the Alec L. comt's reasoning regarding displacement. In AEP, the 

Comt did not have public trust claims before it and so it had no cause to consider the differences 

between public trust claims and other types of claims. Public trust claims are unique because they 

concern inherent attributes of sovereignty. The public trust imposes on the government an obligation 

to protect the res of the trust. A defining feature of that obligation is that it cannot be legislated 

away. Because of the nature of public trust claims, a displacement analysis simply does not apply. 

The interplay between Congress's decision to grant regulat01y authority to various federal 

agencies and the authority of the courts to adjudicate public trust claims raises weightier concerns. 

Those concerns go to whether this case presents a nonjusticiable political question, and have been 

addressed in Section I of this opinion. 

D. Enforceability of Public Trust Obligations in Federal Court 

As a final challenge to plaintiffs' public trust claims, defendants contend that even if the 

public trust doctrine applies to the federal government, plaintiffs lack a cause of action to enforce 

the public trust obligations. Relatedly, defendants argue that creation of a right of action to permit 

plaintiffs to assett their claims in federal comt would be an exercise in federal common law-making 

subject to the same statutoty displacement arguments outlined above. 

In order to evaluate the merits of these arguments, I must first locate the source of plaintiffs' 

public trust claims. I conclude plaintiffs' public trust rights both predated the Constitution and are 

secured by it. See Gerald Tones & Nathan Bellinger, The Public Trust: The Law's DNA, 4 Wake 

Forest J. L. & Pol'y 281, 288-94 (2014). 

PAGE 49 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 49 of 54
The public trust doctrine defines inherent aspects of sovereignty. The Social Contract theo1y, 

which heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers, provides that people 

possess certain inalienable rights and that governments were established by consent of the governed 

for the purpose of securing those rights. 13 Accordingly, the Declaration of Independence and the 

Constitution did not create the rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness - the documents 

are, instead, vehicles for protecting and promoting those already-existing rights. Cf Robinson Twp., 

83 A.3d at 948 (plurality opinion) (rights expressed in the public trust provision of Pennsylvania 

Constitution are "preserved rather than created" by that document); Minors Oposa, 33 I.L.M. at 187 

(the right of future generations to a "balanced and healthful ecology" is so basic that it "need not 

even be written in the Constitution for [it is] assumed to exist from the inception of humankind"). 

Governments, in turn, possess certain powers that permit them to safeguard the rights of the people; 

these powers are inherent in the authority to govern and cannot be sold or bargained away. One 

example is the police power. Stone, 101 U.S. at 817. Another is the status as trustee pursuant to the 

13 The Founding Fathers were also influenced by intergenerational considerations. They 

believed the inalienable rights to life, libe1ty, and property were rooted in a philosophy of 

intergenerational equity. Thomas Jefferson, for example, thought that each generation had the 

obligation to pass the natural estate undiminished to future generations. See Br. of Amicus 

Curiae John Davidson at 21-25 (doc. 60). In a 1789 letter to James Madison, Jefferson wrote that 

"no man can, by natural right, oblige lands he occupied ... to the payments of debts contracted 

by him. For ifhe could, he might, during his own life, eat up the usufruct of the lands for several 

generations to come, and then the lands would belong to the dead, and not to than the living, 

which would be the reverse of our principle. What is trne of every member of the society 

individually is true of them all collectively, since the rights of the whole can be no more than the 

sum of the rights of the individuals." Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Sept. 6, 

1789, in The Founders' Constitution (Philip B. Kurland & Ralph Lerner, eds.) (1986), available 

at press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/vlch2s23.html (last visited Nov. 7, 2016). 

Although I find it unnecessaiy today to address the standing of future generations or the merits of 

plaintiffs' argument that youth and posterity are suspect classifications, I am mindful of the 

intergenerational dimensions of the public trust doctrine in issuing this opinion. 

PAGE 50- OPINION AND ORDER 
public trust doctrine. Illinois Central, 146 U.S. at 459-60. 

Although the public trust predates the Constitution, plaintiffs' right of action to enforce the 

government's obligations as trustee arises from the Constitution. I agree with Judge Coffin that 

plaintiffs' public trust claims are properly categorized as substantive due process claims. As 

explained, the Due Process Clause's substantive component safeguards fundamental rights that are 

"implicit in the concept of ordered liberty" or "deeply rooted in this Nation's histo1y and tradition." 

McDonald, 561 U.S. at 761, 767 (internal citations, quotations, and emphasis omitted). Plaintiffs' 

public trust rights, related as they are to inherent aspects of sovereignty and the consent of the 

governed from which the United States' authority derives, satisfy both tests. Because the public trust 

is not enumerated in the Constitution, substantive due process protection also derives from the Ninth 

Amendment. See U.S. Const. amend. IX ("The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, 

shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."); Raich v. Gonzalez, 500 

F.3d 850, 861-66 (9th Cir. 2007) (considering whether the right to use medical marijuana was a 

fundamental right safeguarded by the Ninth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment's substantive due 

process clause). But it is the Fifth Amendment that provides the right of action. 

Plaintiffs' claims rest "directly on the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment." Davis, 

442 U.S. at 243 (1979); see also Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14, 18 (1980) ("[T]he victims ofa 

constitutional violation by a federal agent have a right to recover damages against the official in 

federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right.") They may, therefore, be 

asserted in federal court. 

CONCLUSION 

Throughout their objections, defendants and intervenors attempt to subject a lawsuit alleging 

PAGE 51 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 51 of 54
constitutional injuries to case law governing statutory and common-law environmental claims. They 

are correct that plaintiffs likely could not obtain the relief they seek through citizen suits brought 

under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, or other environmental laws. But that argument 

misses the point. This action is of a different order than the typical environmental case. It alleges 

that defendants' actions and inactions - whether or not they violate any specific statuto1y dutyhave so profoundly damaged our home planet that they tln·eaten plaintiffs' fundamental 

constitutional rights to life and libe1iy. 

A deep resistance to change runs through defendants' and intervenors' arguments for 

dismissal: they contend a decision recognizing plaintiffs' standing to sue, deeming the controversy 

justiciable, and recognizing a federal public trust and a fundamental right to climate system capable 

of sustaining human life would be unprecedented, as though that alone requires its dismissal. This 

lawsuit may be groundbreaking, but that fact does not alter the legal standards governing the motions 

to dismiss. Indeed, the seriousness of plaintiffs' allegations underscores how vitally important it is 

for this Comi to apply those standards carefully and correctly. 

Federal courts too often have been cautious and overly deferential in the arena of 

environmental law, and the world has suffered for it. As Judge Goodwin recently wrote, 

The current state of affairs ... reveals a wholesale failure of the legal system 

to protect humanity from the collapse of finite natural resources by the uncontrolled 

pursuit of sh01i-term profits .... [T]he modern judiciaiy has enfeebled itself to the 

point that law enforcement can rarely be accomplished by taking environmental 

predators to court. ... 

The third branch can, and should, take another long and careful look at the barriers 

to litigation created by modern doctrines of subject-matterjurisdiction and deference 

to the legislative and administrative branches of government. 

Alfred T. Goodwin, A Wake-Up Call/or Judges, 2015 Wis. L. Rev. 785, 785-86, 788 (2015). 

PAGE 52 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 52 of 54
Judge Goodwin is no stranger to highly politicized legal disputes. Nearly fifty years ago, he 

authored the landmark opinion that secured Oregon's ocean beaches for public use. Private 

landowners wanted to construct fences and otherwise keep private the beaches in front of their 

properties; they brought suit to challenge an Oregon state law requiring public access to all dry sand 

beaches. State ex rel. Thornton v. Hay, 462 P.2d 671, 672-73 (Or. 1969). Writing for five of the six 

members of the Oregon Supreme Court, then-Justice Goodwin rooted his determination the beaches 

were public prope1ty in a concept from English common law: 

Because so much of our law is the product oflegislation, we sometimes lose 

sight of the importance of custom as a source of law in our society. It seems 

patticularly appropriate in the case at bar to look to an ancient and accepted custom 

in this state as the source of a rule of law. The rule in this case, based upon custom, 

is salutary in confirming a public right, and at the same time it takes from no man 

anything which he has a legitimate reason to regard as exclusively his. 14 

Id at 678. 

In an argument with strong echoes in defendants' and intervenors' objections here, the 

plaintiff private prope1ty owner contended it was "constitutionally impermissible ... to dredge up 

an inapplicable, ancient English doctrine that has been universally rejected in modern America." 

Kathryn A. Straton, Oregon's Beaches: A Birthright Preserved 65 (Or. State Parks & Recreation 

1977). The Oregon Supreme Court was not persuaded by this call to judicial conservatism. Because 

of the application of an ancient doctrine, Oregon's beaches remain open to the public now and 

forever. 

14 The sixth justice concurred in the judgment. He found the English rule of custom 

useful by analogy, but would have held the beaches were public property pursuant to the public 

trust doctrine. Hay, 462 P.2d at 679 (Denecke, J., concurring) ("These rights of the public in 

tidelands and in the beds of navigable streams have been called 'jus publicum' and we have 

consistently and recently reaffirmed their existence."). 

PAGE 53 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 53 of 54
"A strong and independent judiciary is the cornerstone of our libe1iies." These words, spoken 

by Oregon Senator Mark 0. Hatfield, are etched into the walls of the Portland United States 

comihouse for the District of Oregon. The words appear on the first floor, a daily reminder that it 

is "emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." Marbwy, 

5 U.S. at 177. Even when a case implicates hotly contested political issues, the judiciary must not 

shrink from its role as a coequal branch of government. 

I ADOPT Judge Coffin's Findings & Recommendation (doc. 68), as elaborated in this 

opinion. Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (doc. 27) and Intervenors' Motion to Dismiss (doc. 19) are 

DENIED. 

IT IS SO ORDERED. 

Dated this/O~ofNovember 2016. 

Ann Aiken 

United States District Judge 

PAGE 54 - OPINION AND ORDER 

Case 6:15-cv-01517-TC Document 83 Filed 11/10/16 Page 54 of 54