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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown joined a multistate coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, urging the court to follow longstanding jurisdictional rules and preserve the role of state courts in resolving state common law claims.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed in Colorado state court by Boulder County and the City of Boulder against several fossil fuel companies seeking damages for alleged harms related to climate change. The companies asked the Supreme Court to review the case before Colorado's courts have finished considering it.
The coalition contends that the Supreme Court does not yet have proper jurisdiction over the case, and the lawsuit should continue in Colorado's courts. The attorneys general say following that process protects the longstanding role and authority of state courts.
The attorneys general also emphasize in the brief that states do not lose their authority to apply state law simply because a case involves issues that cross state lines. The attorneys general argue the Constitution does not automatically prevent state courts from hearing these claims.
Finally, the coalition notes that state courts already have well-established rules for adjudicating the merits of legal claims. Those decisions, the attorneys general say, should be made through the normal judicial process with appropriate protections for all parties rather than through a broad new federal rule that would prevent state law claims from proceeding in state courts.
In filing the brief, Attorney General Brown is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
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