Climate Change, Public Health, and the U.S. Supreme Court

Description

Join the Center for the Law and the Public's Health and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University for a discussion about how the newly configured U.S. Supreme Court may rule on climate change cases and other matters vital to public health.

On Jan. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case arising out of Baltimore City's climate change litigation against BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell. The City is seeking damages from these energy companies for the impact of global climate change—specifically, it says that the companies' production of fossil fuels has led to a warming climate, sea-level rise, and increased costs to maintain the infrastructure needed for the City to combat flooding. The case before the Supreme Court involves the question whether the suit must be heard by the state court, as the City contends, or can be heard instead by a federal court, which the companies prefer.

Our panel of experts in environmental law and policy—including the chief of the Affirmative Litigation Division at Baltimore City's Law Department, who is overseeing the city's lawsuit—will use this case as a jumping off point for a larger discussion about the Supreme Court's possible jurisprudential moves related to climate change and a variety of vital public health matters likely to come before the Court.

Learn more about the speakers online.