Montana leads coalition of states pushing to join federal climate change lawsuit
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has filed a motion for the state to intervene in a federal climate change lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Montana last year.
Knudsen is leading a coalition of 18 other Republican state Attorneys General, and the Territory in Guam, in filing as defendants in the lawsuit that alleges three of President Donald Trump’s executive orders to “unleash” the fossil fuel industry, and remove climate protections, threaten the constitutional rights to life and liberty of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, filed in May, centers on 22 young plaintiffs, led by 19-year-old Eva Lighthiser, from Livingston. Lighthiser is one of several Montana plaintiffs who also filed the landmark Held v. Montana lawsuit, alleging several state policies violated their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. The Held case prevailed in Montana District Court and, in late 2024, the Montana Supreme Court.
Lighthiser says the president is “waging war” on her and her co-plaintiffs, and that the federal government’s actions amount to a “death sentence for my generation.”
“President Trump’s (executive orders)s falsely claim an energy emergency, while the true emergency is that fossil fuel pollution is destroying the foundation of Plaintiffs’ lives,” according to the 126-page complaint. “These unconstitutional directives have the immediate effect of slowing the buildout of U.S. energy infrastructure that eliminates planet-heating fossil fuel greenhouse gas pollution … and increasing the use of fossil fuels that pollute the air, water, lands, and climate on which Plaintiffs’ lives depend.”
Knudsen, whose office lost its case defending Montana in the Held lawsuit, said in court documents that Montana, and the additional states, “have unique interests in this case because it threatens their economies, the use of their properties, and their state budgets.”
“President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Orders unleashing American energy have already provided tremendous benefits to the State Intervenors and their millions of citizens, as well as the promise and hope for a more prosperous, strong, and peaceful future, especially among those “forgotten” communities whose very livelihoods depend on a revival of America’s unparalleled energy sector,” according to court documents.
The motion says that the plaintiffs in the case are “discontent with the policy positions of the new Administration when it comes to unleashing American energy-and the ensuing creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs and economic security for the State Intervenors and all Americans,” and made their complaint “based on alleged violations of ‘unenumerated liberty interests.’”
Because many of the plaintiffs are Montanans, and much of the original complaint specifically uses examples of alleged harms to the environment and economy in Montana, Knudsen’s cited the state’s interest in its own policies, economy and laws as an argument for inclusion.
Knudsen’s brief states that if the states are allowed to join the lawsuit, they will file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit by August 4.
The attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Montanan.
Representatives from Our Children’s Trust, one of the law firms representing the plaintiffs, said that the decision for the states to intervene in this case — out of more than 450 that have been filed challenging executive orders or federal actions — indicates the significance, and threat, the lawsuit carries.
“That speaks volumes,” said Julia Olsen, chief legal counsel at Our Children’s Trust. “These states see Lighthiser vs. Trump as the biggest legal threat to the fossil fuel executive orders that are harming children, worsening the climate crisis, and violating the Constitution. Instead of protecting the health and safety of young people, these states are lining up to defend orders that unleash more fossil fuel pollution, silence science, and dismantle safeguards passed by Congress.
“The evidence will show not only that President Trump’s policies will harm these young plaintiffs and expose them to more life-threatening flood, fire, and heat events, but that they are wholly unnecessary for the energy and prosperity needs of our nation.” Along with Montana, the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming —and the U.S. Territory of Guam — joined the motion to intervene, represented by their respective Attorneys General.
A two-day combined evidentiary hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction and the federal government’s forthcoming motion to dismiss is set for September 16–17, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Judge Dana Christiansen is presiding over the case.
