State of California v. General Motors Corporation, et al.

Case Updates

California voluntarily dropped its lawsuit.

NCLC urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of the California’s lawsuit seeking to hold the top six automobile manufacturers liable for the global warming damages allegedly caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from automobiles. The state argued that the federal courts have the authority to create federal common law remedies for interstate “public nuisances.” In its brief, NCLC argued that the case raises non-justiciable political questions better reserved to the political branches than to individual federal courts. NCLC also argued that the creation of new federal common law for interstate public nuisances runs counter to nearly a century of precedent.