On July 7, 2010, the Washington Legal Foundation filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit urging it to reject an appeal filed by the Alaskan village of Kivalina, which seeks to revive a lawsuit contending that global warming is destroying the village by melting Arctic sea ice. Suing under a common law theory of nuisance, Kivalina asked the court to reverse the trial court’s dismissal of its complaint against 19 leading American oil and energy companies, which demands up to $400 million for their role in contributing to global warming through their carbon dioxide emissions. In its brief, WLF asked that the district court’s dismissal be affirmed because the lawsuit presents a nonjusticiable political question and because Kivalina lacks standing to bring such an action under these facts.

Awaiting decision