Arguing that state and local governments have the same rights as other plaintiffs to choose state, rather than federal court, a CCL amicus brief asserted that there was no legitimate basis for oil companies to remove a climate-change lawsuit brought by the State of Minnesota to federal court. The brief, on behalf of the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the International Municipal Lawyers Association, focuses most heavily on the oil industries' argument that federal common law completely displaced the state causes of action asserted in the case. 

     In June, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a similar action brought by the City of Baltimore required lower courts to review all the claimed bases for federal-court jurisdiction when a defendant asserts that it was acting at the direction of a federal officer, even if that assertion fails as a matter of law. In the Minnesota case, the oil company defendants made that argument but did not seriously pursue it on appeal, emphasizing the other grounds that would permit it to be in federal, rather than state, court. 

     As for the "federal common law" argument, the amicus brief argued that the Clean Air Act displaced any federal common law and explicitly opened the door to state causes of action, such as the ones filed by Minnesota. The amicus brief was filed with the Law Offices of William Rossbach.