The Biden Administration’s Bad Legal Case on Climate Change as Public Nuisance

On Tuesday, December 10, 2024, the solicitor general of the United States submitted two amicus briefs endorsing state court public nuisance and related climate lawsuits, encouraging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow these cases to proceed by declining to hear the cases recently submitted to it.

If the Court agrees, an increasingly expanding patchwork of state court public nuisance and consumer fraud claims related to climate change could be filed in any and every local courthouse in the country. The Biden SG’s conclusions are both dangerous and inconsistent with past Democrat and Republican SG assessments of the same issues.

DJ

About the Author

Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan is a professor of law and the executive director of the Law & Economics Center at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

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On Tuesday, December 10, 2024, the solicitor general of the United States submitted two amicus briefs endorsing state court public nuisance and related climate lawsuits, encouraging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow these cases to proceed by declining to hear the cases recently submitted to it.

If the Court agrees, an increasingly expanding patchwork of state court public nuisance and consumer fraud claims related to climate change could be filed in any and every local courthouse in the country. The Biden SG’s conclusions are both dangerous and inconsistent with past Democrat and Republican SG assessments of the same issues.

DJ

About the Author

Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan is a professor of law and the executive director of the Law & Economics Center at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.