Suit says administration is impinging on rights to life and liberty by worsening planet-warming and toxic pollution

Dharna Noor
Wed 20 May 2026 21.04 BST

Eighteen American youth are demanding that a court immediately halt the Trump administration’s repeal of the scientific finding underpinning virtually all US climate regulations.

The plaintiffs sued the Trump administration in February days after officials revoked the 2009 endangerment finding, which found that greenhouse gas pollution threatens public health and welfare. Filed in the Washington DC circuit court of appeals Venner v EPA alleges that the move infringes upon rights guaranteed by the US constitution, including to religious freedom, life and liberty.

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The filing also asks the court to immediately halt the repeal of annual motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the day it rolled back the endangerment finding. In the time it could take for their lawsuit to wind through the courts, the filing says, the rescissions may result in an additional gigaton of additional planet-warming C02 pollution – more than Japan’s total emissions in one year. That figure is based on EPA’s 2024 calculations of pollution cuts attributable to the regulations each year.

“The increased exposure to all of the pollutants that will result from this rule can’t be undone,” said Julia Olson, the founder and chief legal counsel for Our Children’s Trust, the non-profit law firm behind the lawsuit. “The harm to the petitioners is irreversible.”

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