CCL filed an amicus brief today on behalf of six U.S. Senators in the climate change litigation brought by Oakland and San Francisco against a number of major oil companies. The case is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, after a federal district court dismissed the litigation based on a determination that the issue requires resolution in the U.S. Congress.

     Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Kamala Harris (D-CA) argue in the brief that the defendant companies' argument that climate change should be addressed but by the Congress or Executive Branch is disingenuous because the companies have a long history of opposing action by the legislature or by federal agencies and use their political clout against against action on the issue or candidates favoring action. The brief details the myriad ways that the defendants have impeded progress on this incredibly important issue and urges the court to treat the defendants' pleas for a different forum as pretextual and an attempt to assure that no forum confronts the issue.

     The brief also points out that federal courts have a "virtually unflagging obligation" to exercise the jurisdiction given them under a 1976 Supreme Court precedent, Colorado River Water Conservation Dist. v. United States. Moreover, the cities have claimed a real injury proximately caused by the defendants that will not be otherwise remedied without a court's willingness to hear their case.

     The Ninth Circuit is expected to hear oral argument in the dispute later this year.