Now Playing:

A federal appeals court in San Francisco gave a chilly response Monday to the Trump administration’s argument to scuttle a far-reaching lawsuit by 21 young people who say their rights are at risk from the government’s inaction on climate change.

The youths, aged 10 to 21, sued President Barack Obama’s administration in 2015. Their lawyers contended that the government’s long-established obligation to protect public resources such as rivers and seashores applies to the atmosphere, and that the youths’ constitutional right to life and liberty, and to due process of law, is being violated by federal policies on fossil fuels and related issues.

Ruling that the youths had made at least a preliminary showing that the government’s policies were likely to harm them, a federal judge in Oregon refused to dismiss the suit in November 2016. At a hearing Monday attended by 18 of the young plaintiffs, a Trump administration lawyer called the ruling “unprecedented” and asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to overturn it.

Back to Gallery SF court cool to Trump administration attempt to quash... 10 1 of 10 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 2 of 10 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 3 of 10 Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images 4 of 10 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 5 of 10 Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press 6 of 10 Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle 7 of 10 Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle 2017 8 of 10 Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle 9 of 10 Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle 10 of 10 Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle



















“The court should decline to fashion a due-process right out of thin air,” Justice Department attorney Eric Grant told the three-judge panel. He said the suit was “clearly meritless” and, if allowed to proceed, would threaten to create a “constitutional confrontation between the branches” of government, referring to the executive branch and the courts.

But Chief Judge Sidney Thomas said the process the administration wants the court to halt — the plaintiffs’ efforts to question federal officials and gather evidence — is a routine procedure that courts seldom interrupt.

Judge Marsha Berzon said the government’s objections appeared to be premature. And the third panel member, Judge Alex Kozinski, said even a case that is ultimately found to be “meritless” should not be dismissed at this stage.

“There always has to be a first case,” Kozinski said. “Ten years ago there was no right to same-sex marriage.”

But Kozinski also expressed doubt that the case would be allowed to go to trial.

Questioning a lawyer for the youths, he cited the appeals court’s 2013 ruling dismissing a suit by environmental groups against Washington state officials for failing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions by the state’s five oil refineries. The court said the groups could not show that their members were harmed by the refineries’ emission, and therefore lacked legal standing to sue.

“I don’t see how this case is different,” Kozinski said.

The lawyer, Julia Olson, replied that the refineries emitted about 6 percent of Washington’s greenhouse gases, while the United States spews out 16 percent or more of the world’s climate-changing gases.

Kozinski also questioned the youths’ legal standing on another ground — that the harm they said they were suffering was “the same as everybody else in the country” — but Olson disagreed.

“Children are disproportionately suffering harm” to their health, she said, and “they will live far longer than you,” to a devastating era of rising seas.

She said the plaintiffs were not asking the courts to take over the fossil fuel industry, but only to order federal agencies to bring their emissions under control.

“Who runs the country at that point?” Kozinski asked. “Is it a district judge in Oregon or is it the president?”

“They can’t ignore their constitutional obligations,” Olson replied.

The panel will rule at a future date on whether the suit can proceed.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@egelko