The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a lawsuit from Republican attorneys general in 19 states aimed at blocking climate change suits against the oil and gas industry from Democratic-led states.
The justices acted on an unusual Republican effort to file suit in the Supreme Court over the Democratic states’ use of their own state courts to sue fossil fuel companies for deceiving the public about the risks of their products contributing to climate change.
The Supreme Court typically hears only appeals, but the Constitution gives the court authority to hear original lawsuits states file against each other.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have allowed the lawsuit to proceed for now. The justices don’t have the discretion to reject the complaint at this stage, Thomas wrote in a dissent that did not deal with the merits of the claim.
If your criteria for their validity is whether you agree with their decisions or not, then it’s going to look unpredictable.
My criteria is honestly trying to figure out if there is some sort of guiding principle behind their decisions or if there is any sort of consistency.