The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Court Dismisses Trump Administration Effort to Block Michigan Climate Lawsuit
The Department of Justice failed to demonstrate that the court had jurisdiction to hear the (premature) claims.
The Trump Administration has taken a hard line against state climate policies, particularly efforts by states and localities to impose liability on fossil fuel companies for their role in increasing atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases. An April 2025 Executive Order instructed the Department of Justice and other agencies to intervene to block or obstruct such state-level initiatives.
Pursuant to the Executive Order, the Justice Department filed suit to prevent Michigan from filing suit against fossil fuel companies, as other states and some local jurisdictions have. As you might have anticipated, this suit had the problem of trying to preempt a lawsuit that has yet to be filed. Thus it should be unsurprising that United States v. Michigan has been dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, with the judge finding that the Justice Department failed to demonstrate ripeness or standing.
The Justice Department attempted to argue that any suit Michigan could consider fiing against fossil fuel companies is preempted by federal law--but that claim is simply false (for reasons I've discussed in prior posts, such as those listed here). Tort litigation may be a bad way to try and address the problem of climate change, but that hardly means such suits are preempted by federal law, let alone that the federal government can rush to court to block a lawsuit that has not even been filed, nor does it mean that the federal government has standing to ask a federal court to preemptively intervene when a state is considering whether to file suit against private companies in state court.
Like it or not, Congress has never enacted legislation to preempt state litigation or legislation targeting fossil fuel companies or greenhouse gas emissions. If the Trump Administration and fossil fuel companies wish to preempt such efforts, they would be better advised to focus their efforts on encouraging Congress to act instead of filing meritless lawsuits like this one.
