By Susan Messer
As I write this (July 2025), the air quality in Chicagoland (where I live) is labeled unhealthy for sensitive groups. In addition, the National Weather Service has issued an “extreme heat watch,” noting that over the next two days, residents can expect dangerously hot conditions with possible heat index values of 105˚ -110˚ . Elsewhere on our planet, devastating tornadoes, floods, forest fires, and extreme heat bring death and destruction, test bodies and spirits.
Meanwhile, ignoring scientific findings on fossil-fuel energy and its effects on the climate, the Trump Administration has issued executive orders that ramp up production of these fuels and has also removed critical climate science information from federal websites. These actions threaten to lock in irreversible environmental damage for generations to come. And this, in today’s news: The “Trump administration has drafted a plan to repeal a fundamental scientific finding that gives the United States government its authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions and fight climate change . . . .”
Enter Our Children’s Trust (OCT)—a nonprofit public interest law firm in Eugene, Oregon, that has for years dedicated itself to securing a healthy atmosphere and safe climate for our young people. OCT was the focus of a documentary shown in the 2021 One Earth Film Festival. That film--Youth v Gov--is the story of Juliana v. United States, the legal case that OCT filed in 2015. In Juliana, 21 young plaintiffs from 9 states sued the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty, personal safety, and property. After a decade of the complex twists, turns, and appeals that the US legal system features, in 2025, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, bringing an end to that particular legal battle.
But!
In a compelling embodiment of spirit and resistance, on May 29, 2025, the lawyers at OCT filed Lighthiser v. Trump, on behalf of 22 youth from Montana, Oregon, Hawai‘i, California, and Florida, asserting their constitutional rights to life, health, and safety. This youth-led constitutional rights lawsuit challenges three of the Trump administration’s recent Executive Orders, each of which has the capacity to intensify the climate crisis and worsen the youth plaintiffs’ climate-related health injuries.
These are the three executive orders the plaintiffs are challenging in their lawsuit:
EXECUTIVE ORDER 14154: UNLEASHING AMERICAN ENERGY. This order directs the executive branch to “unleash” America’s fossil fuel energy development, stymying the growth of climate change solutions.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 14156: DECLARING A NATIONAL ENERGY EMERGENCY. This order directs federal agencies to invoke emergency powers to accelerate the identification, leasing, production, and transportation of domestic crude oil, gas, and coal, and related infrastructure. This so-called emergency (many experts agree that we have no such emergency) will fast-track harmful and polluting fossil-fuel projects.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 14261: REINVIGORATING AMERICA'S COAL INDUSTRY. This order aims to revitalize the U.S. coal industry by designating coal as a “mineral” under federal policy, thereby granting it priority status for extraction and development on public lands.
In their lawsuit, the youth plaintiffs ask the court to take four actions:
Declare the three executive orders unconstitutional.
Block their implementation and future enforcement.
Protect the rights of youth to live, speak, and thrive with healthy air in a stable climate.
Act as a judicial check on the unconstitutional actions of the executive branch.
The parties are now preparing for a two-day hearing in September. As you can imagine, advancing this case in our current political climate will be an extremely heavy lift. Please visit the OCT website to learn more about this case, the youth plaintiffs, and ways to support this work, including the recently introduced congressional resolution recognizing children’s fundamental rights to life and a stable climate system.