Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2021 by Mickey Huff & Andy Lee Roth

Author:Mickey Huff & Andy Lee Roth [Huff, Mickey & Roth, Andy Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: propaganda, free speech, Social Science, politics, critical thinking, business, political philosophy, writing, economics, history, media, race, democracy, Media Studies, american history, computers, government, technology, reference, self help, culture, marketing, biography, internet, political science, international politics, political science books, sociology, school, environment, history books, guide, resistance, geopolitics, essays, health, sociology books, feminism, journalism, philosophy, law, education, political books, censorship, pop culture, social, world politics
ISBN: 9781644210277
Google: cjoEEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2020-12-01T23:35:48.821441+00:00

In September 2015, 21 young environmental activists represented by Eugene, Oregon-based advocacy group Our Children’s Trust sued the federal government and President Barack Obama for knowingly endangering their lives by failing to do enough to prevent climate change. According to the suit, now known as Juliana v. US, the defendants “deliberately allow[ed] atmospheric CO2 concentrations to escalate to levels unprecedented in human history,” thus violating their constitutional rights. As James Conca noted in his Forbes article on the case, the lawsuit’s assertion that the federal government has an obligation to protect the “natural systems required for the people’s survival” was the first of its kind.

Three fossil fuel trade associations, including the American Petroleum Institute, initially attempted to intervene in the lawsuit, alleging it constituted a “direct, substantial threat to [their] businesses,” although by June 2017 they were no longer defendants in the suit.

Following pre-trial hearings, US District Court Judge Thomas Coffin in April 2016 rejected Justice Department motions to have the case dismissed. In doing so, he found that the government is subject to public trust doctrine and a “trustee” of the natural resources people depend on for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

In November 2016, US District Court Judge Ann Aiken affirmed Coffin’s ruling, clearing the way for the case to go to trial. In February 2017, the plaintiffs updated their suit to name President Donald Trump as a defendant in place of Obama. As Censored 2018 went to press in summer 2017, lawyers for the young environmental activists sought to depose Trump’s then–Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil, and were preparing for a trial projected to begin in the autumn of 2017.

As Project Censored observed in its original write-up, in autumn 2015 corporate news coverage of the pioneering lawsuit was scant, with the lone exception being MSNBC’s November 2015 report framing the case as “long on symbolism” and “unlikely to win.” However, by the spring and summer of 2016, CBS, Fox News, Forbes, and The Atlantic had also reported about the lawsuit.

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