The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to weigh whether climate change lawsuits filed by California and two dozen other cities and states should be blocked.
The question is whether greenhouse gas emissions are controlled solely by federal law, or whether states have a role to play.
The oil and gas industry has urged the high court to take up the issue immediately and rule that federal law preempts or overrides state claims seeking damages for the effects of climate warming.
Monday’s brief order requires Deputy Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar to file a brief “expressing the United States’ views on two pending appeals, Sunoco Inc. v. Honolulu and Shell v. Honolulu.”
The announcement suggests it will be at least several months before courts decide whether to take up disputes between oil and gas producers and the blue states suing them.
But in the meantime, state and municipal attorneys from Massachusetts to Hawaii can continue to process their claims. They are seeking a jury trial to prove that energy companies knew for decades the dangers of burning fossil fuels and instead tried to downplay the risks of a warming planet.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom and attorneys. Gen. Rob Bonta said the state is suing five of the largest oil and gas companies — Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP — as well as the American Petroleum Institute , calling it a “decades-long campaign of deception” that has caused climate change-related harms in California. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court.
Monday’s order noted that Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. was not involved in the court’s consideration of the appeals, possibly because he owns stock in one or more of the 15 companies that filed the appeals .
Unlike other judges, Alito continues to own large holdings of individual stocks, which may require him to abandon rulings in cases involving one of the companies. However, if the court hears a climate change case next year, he could sell affected shares and then participate in the ruling.
Separately, Alito has been under pressure to drop rulings in pending cases involving former President Trump, who has argued that he should be immune from criminal prosecution over accusations that he conspired to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
Alito said he would not step aside. He acknowledged that his wife had flown flags outside their two homes in what was widely seen as a show of support for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. But he said he had nothing to do with her decision and that did not prevent him from making impartial decisions on pending cases.
