The Youth CAN Break Into Legal Policies: Juliana v. Gov

BY HANNAH SARAF: Northwest Regional Outreach Manager at THe Tomorrow Project

Youth are typically excluded from creating legal change in America. You have to be 18 to vote, to be a U.S. representative you must be 25, to run to be a Senator you must be 30, and to be President of the United States you must be 35 years old. While technically, yes, your frontal lobe (aka the decision making part of your brain) isn’t fully developed until your mid-twenties, that doesn’t mean that young people should be silenced, especially with decisions being made about our futures.

So, with access to the executive and legislative branches closed off to the youth, what governmental action can we take to make a difference in the future they will be living in? Why, we can sue the entire United States government, of course! Twenty-one young plaintiffs sued the government in a constitutional climate lawsuit in a case called Juliana v. United States. The case was originally filed in 2015 by Our Children’s Trust, a non-profit law firm working to give youth a voice in the courts. The case has been in progress since then and has faced many different legal challenges from both the government and the fossil fuel industry. These two major players fear the impact that the case may have on them if improvements to protect our planet are determined to be mandatory under the Constitution. 

The plaintiffs currently range from age 12 to age 24, meaning that when the case was filed, plaintiffs under the age of 10 were suing the U.S. government to protect youth everywhere and their ability to grow up on a planet that is safe and sustainable. This demonstrates that the work of the Tomorrow Project is critical and valuable. If a child takes the lessons we teach them and carries it with them until they’re 18, they will vote for politicians and policies that will promote sustainability and take good care of our Earth in many ways. If they carry those lessons with them until they are 25, or 30, or 35, perhaps they will run for office and propose bills or executive orders that will help care for their world. Or maybe, they will immediately take agency of their future and take actions as small as using reusable bags or straws, or as big as suing the government to protect their future. We believe that each child has the potential to make an impact on both the world and the health of it, through their actions now and later, as demonstrated by the incredible youth plaintiffs in Juliana v. U.S. 

Learn more about the case here: https://www.youthvgov.org/

Visit Our Children’s Trust here: https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/