Youth Climate Plaintiffs Invoke Religious Freedom Law to Challenge EPA's Endangerment Finding Repeal

Our Children's Trust and Public Justice filed a motion to stay the EPA's repeal of the endangerment finding in Venner v. EPA, arguing the action violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Fifth Amendment's protections for life and liberty. The plaintiffs include observant Jewish youth who are required by their faith to walk to synagogue on the Sabbath and an observant Muslim youth required to fast during Ramadan, both of whom claim worsening heat from unmitigated climate change will make these religious practices unsafe or impossible. The endangerment finding, originally established under the Clean Air Act, forms the legal basis for EPA regulation of greenhouse gases, and its repeal by the current administration has been widely criticized as legally aggressive. Legal commentators, including those skeptical of the repeal's lawfulness on administrative grounds, have expressed doubt that religious liberty or constitutional arguments will succeed in federal court. Federal courts have consistently dismissed jurisdictional claims in similar youth climate cases, most recently in Lighthiser v. Trump. The motion does raise a potentially more viable administrative law question about whether the EPA adequately responded to public comments raising these concerns during the rulemaking process. The case adds a new dimension to ongoing litigation over federal climate policy and the limits of judicial review in that domain.