Our Courts
are Missing in Action

Our Courts are Missing in Action

By Thomas Coffin

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Americas’ top human rights court, is currently hearing a case in Bogota, Columbia that could clarify the responsibilities of member nations as they approach the climate crisis. Victims of climate change are demanding that the Court define the duties of their countries to confront the climate crisis.

Ironically, here in the United States, the very birthplace of democracy and its foundation—the sacred Rule of Law—our court system refuses stubbornly to even address the subject, once again dismissing Juliana v. United States, the 9-year-old youth climate a lawsuit. The stated basis of the 9th Circuit’s dismissal is that the victims of climate change have no “standing” to challenge government policy which has promoted the causes of climate change, e.g., permitting development of fossil fuel resources by industries rather than taking action to eliminate the practice.

What is the purpose of the Court if not to protect the rights of the people it serves? What rights are more important than the right to life itself, or the right to due process that must be afforded prior to stripping that life away from the individual? And what life can be sustained in the absence of a habitable environment?  Yet our judicial system declares that its doors are shut and it will not even entertain evidence being introduced within its walls regarding the harm being done to those being harmed and deprived of such rights.

There is a close parallel to the climate change debacle I wish to address in an effort to illustrate the gravity of the judiciary’s abandonment of its core mission of justice and the very people it is supposed to serve. That is the gun violence epidemic which has become the leading cause of death to children in our nation, surpassing automobile accidents, which have plummeted thanks to safety features that have been mandated by legal requirements in vehicles which were the result of studies which were then incorporated because of government regulations which followed those studies. 

In vivid contrast, our schools and all other forums in our society are drowning in the blood of the victims of mass shootings in terrible frequency. At the same time, the arms industry’s response to the carnage is production of even more deadly firearms to profit from selling even more such weaponry to the general public with little or no regulation of the trade, and no safety features to reduce the carnage toll of victims.

The reader may ask what safety features exist for military grade weaponry designed to kill as many of the enemy as possible? That in itself is reason to keep these weapons strictly in the control of the military and law enforcement “well regulated “militias. Incredibly, the gun industry is promoting an urban sniper rifle that will hit a human target within an inch of his or her heart from over 100 yards or more. What sane society allows such weaponry in commerce as if it was a golf club or bowling ball?

The gun industry and the fossil fuel industry combined are depriving future generations of a habitable environment and life itself as they seek to maximize profits today at the cost of a planet that will no longer sustain life in the future. A recent environmental survey of top climate scientists revealed that they predict temperatures to rise this century above preindustrial levels, blasting past internationally agreed targetswith catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet. 

There is even more to digest here than meets the eye. A May 9 article in the Washington Post has exposed that Donald Trump recently hosted fossil fuel magnates at Mar-a- Lago and promised them he would scrap all initiatives Biden has pursued to curb climate change in return for a billion dollar “donation” to his election campaign. Let that sink in—Humanity and all creatures on the planet are for sale at an exclusive auction for billionaires.

Let me return to the climate change case which the 9th Circuit recently ordered to be dismissed because the victims had no “standing” to be heard on the matter, much less any remedy that the Judiciary can order.

Balderdash!  Basic rights are not for sale at a hosted dinner for the ultra-rich. The people have a right to be heard, to present evidence, to penetrate the fog that covers the barter that is behind the scenes of “the art of the deal.”  Our courts exist to illuminate the truth, not bury it.

These issues are existential, and should be exposed, not buried. The Second Amendment is not a license to kill nor does it place profit over the lives of people. The climate is not for sale to billionaires, nor the right to life that is enshrined in our Constitution.  The Courts need to open their doors, not lock them.  The hearing taking place in Bogota should be also taking place in the birthplace of democracy.

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Thomas Coffin was the keynote speaker at the Blackberry Pie Society’s Political Party in February, 2020 and at Politics and Pie in October, 2022.  He is a retired federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon and a former professor at the UO Law School. Thomas retired in 2016 after 24 years on the bench, prior to which he had a career as a federal prosecutor spanning 21 years. He is married with 7 children.  The Blackberry Pie Society is pleased to include a collection of his essays on our website.  We will post them as they become available.

Posted 5.23.2024