Summary:
In Held and Others, sixteen young plaintiffs — aged between two and eighteen — brought a case against the U.S. state of Montana alleging violations of the state constitution due to climate change. The young plaintiffs in this case, which is to some extent comparable to the Juliana litigation, alleged that they are already experiencing ‘a host of adverse consequences’ from anthropogenic climate change in Montana, including increased temperatures, changing weather patterns, more acute droughts and extreme weather events, increasing wildfires and glacial melt. They argued that this was causing health risks, especially for children, and that the defendants, among them the state of Montana, its Governor, and various state agencies, had “act[ed] affirmatively to exacerbate the climate crisis” despite their awareness of the risk of harm to the applicants. The plaintiffs sought a declaration that their right to a clean and healthy environment includes a right a stable climate, and that existing approaches to greenhouse gas emissions in Montana violate constitutional provisions, including the right to a clean and healthy environment; the right to seek safety, health, and happiness; and the right to individual dignity and to equal protection. They also sought injunctive relief, namely an order to account for the state’s Montana’s greenhouse gas emissions and to develop and implement an emissions reductions plan.
Decision on the admissibility:
On 4 August 2021, a the Montana First Judicial District Court for Lewis and Clark County declared the case admissible in part. The prayer for injunctive relief in terms of emissions accounting, a remedial plan or policy, the appointment of expert to assist the court, and retain jurisdiction until such orders are complied with were rejected. However, the court declared the constitutional rights claims admissible, including the claim about the plaintiffs’ ‘fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment’, which — as the plaintiffs submit — ‘includes a stable climate system that sustains human lives and liberties’.
Date filed:
13 March 2020
Date of admissibility decision:
4 August 2021
More information:
The original complaint is available from the Western Environmental Law Center.
The admissibility decision is available over on climatecasechart.com.
Suggested citation:
Montana First District Court for Lewis and Clark county, Held and others v. State of Montana and others, order on motion to dismiss, 4 August 2021, Cause No. CDV-2020-307.