In August 2023, the First Judicial District Court of Montana handed down a historic win for the youth-led climate movement and rights-based climate litigation. In Held v. Montana, 16 youth plaintiffs brought a lawsuit claiming that Montana’s fossil fuel policies violated their constitutional rights, including their right to a healthy environment. The lawsuit challenged a provision of the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), known as the MEPA Limitation, which barred consideration of climate change when considering whether to authorize fossil fuel projects.

In its ruling, the court held that the MEPA Limitation violated the youth plaintiffs’ right to a “clean and healthful environment” – which includes the climate system— by facilitating Montana’s “globally significant” greenhouse gas emissions. The court found that the youth plaintiffs were already experiencing harms from climate change, and that these harms were likely to get worse over the course of their lifetimes. The decision sets a powerful precedent for rights-based climate litigation in the U.S. and around the world.

To discuss the victory, CLX’s César Rodríguez-Garavito spoke with Phil Gregory, attorney with Our Children’s Trust and counsel for the plaintiffs in Held v. Montana.

For more on this case, read the case study here.