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Appellate Judge Lays Out Compelling Case for Why Supreme Court Needs to Get Involved in Climate Litigation Cases

As petitions asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether climate lawsuits against American energy companies belong in federal or state court continue to stack up, a federal appellate judge has called on the high court to get involved.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued a long-anticipated ruling on the jurisdictional question yesterday in Minnesota’s climate lawsuit. And although the three-judge panel ultimately found that the case should move forward in state court, one judge “argue[d] the circuits essentially are handcuffed by precedent and call[ed] on the Supreme Court to give them more latitude by siding with the oil company defendants,” as Politico reports.

In a concurring opinion, Judge David Stras explained that although he agreed with the other judges in finding that – under current law – Minnesota’s lawsuit doesn’t belong in federal court, he wanted to “write separately … to explain why it should.”

Read more on EIDClimate.org.

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