Supreme Court Allows Minnesota Lawsuit Against Fossil-Fuel Industry to Proceed

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Minnesota’s lawsuit against major actors in the fossil-fuel industry may proceed in state court. Without comment, the Court denied the petition of defendants ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, and three Koch Industries entities to review lower-court decisions that remanded the case to state court. The order indicates that Justice Kavanaugh would have accepted the petition.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison first sued defendants in June 2020, alleging defendants deceived and defrauded Minnesotans about the climate change-related danger associated with their products. Now, three and a half years after Minnesota first sued the defendants, the case can proceed in state court, where it was originally filed.

The original lawsuit includes claims for fraud, failure to warn, and multiple separate violations of state laws that prohibit consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices, and false statements in advertising.In addition to an injunction barring further violation of these laws,the complaint seeks restitution for the harms Minnesotans have suffered, and asks the Court to require defendants to fund a corrective public education campaign on the issue of climate change.

“I appreciate the Court’s consideration and decision. It aligns with 25 federal court decisions across the country, all of which have found that cases like ours rest on these defendants’ failures to warn and their campaigns of deception around their products’ contributions to the climate crisis,” Attorney General Ellison said. “The Court’s decision confirms these cases are properly filed in state courts. Taken together, the defendants’ behavior has delayed the transition to alternative energy sources and a lower carbon economy, resulting in dire impacts on Minnesota’s environment and enormous costs to Minnesotans and the world.”

Source: The Office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison