Decision of a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissing Juliana v. United States for lack of Article III standing.
Of course, it is still an embarrassment that this case ever made it to the Ninth Circuit in the first place. The United States District Court should have dismissed this case as soon as it was first filed.
This was nothing more than a cynically attempt to hide behind children and use the courts to enact public policy. The Ninth Circuit properly recognized that it is not their business to enact public policy and instead recognized that Congress and the President together have that exclusive prerogative.
The final line of the majority decision sums it up:
That the other branches may have abdicated their responsibility to remediate the problem does not confer on Article III courts, no matter how well-intentioned, the ability to step into their shoes.
United States Circuit Judges Mary H. Murguia and Andrew D. Hurwitz, comprised the majority, with Hurwitz writing the decision. United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton of the Central District of California, sitting by designation, dissented.
By the way, all three Judges on the panel were Obama appointees.
Glad to see Obama Judges that can recognize TRUE judicial activism and put a stop to it.
This is an absolutely ******* excellent decision by the Ninth Circuit.
His piece reminded me that the OBAMA administration had requested this case be dismissed for lack of Article III standing.
He also mentioned that the Supreme Court had made a subtle hint sometime back about the proper disposition of the case, even while refusing at that time to dismiss the case itself on the grounds that the government still had available redress at the Ninth Circuit.
The dismissal will be with prejudice for lack of standing.
Sanctions are not appropriate here. No behavior that rises close to sanction-able.
Just filing a lame case is not a violation of ethics stands.
The REAL Plaintiffs, the ones that hold the children’s puppet strings, have likely run up thousands of dollars in court costs and attorney’s fees, all for nothing. So at least they have drained a small portion of their assets in this totally fruitless effort.
