A group of young activists who sued the United States in 2015 is now seeking justice internationally, Inside Climate News has reported.

Just over a decade ago, the nonprofit law firm Our Children's Trust filed a landmark suit known as Juliana, et al. v. United States in federal district court in Oregon. In addition to the U.S. government, its 21 young plaintiffs — all under the age of 20 at the time of the initial filing — also named several officials and agencies as defendants.

One plaintiff was listed as "Future Generations," represented by James Hansen, the former director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 

In the filing, the young plaintiffs petitioned the court to "compel the defendants to take action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions so that atmospheric CO2 concentrations will be no greater than 350 parts per million by 2100," as described in a summary from the Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, which maintains a comprehensive record of the lawsuit's trajectory from its filing on August 12, 2015. 

The plaintiffs alleged that American policy violated their rights to life and liberty, as well as their due process rights, by allowing "dangerous levels" of heat-trapping pollution.

The group was not deterred when met with a dismissal in January 2020; the court acknowledged the plaintiffs had sufficiently demonstrated they sustained real harms and that the defendants had been reasonably accused but further held that the judicial system was ill-equipped to grant their request for relief due to the complexity of the suit's claims.

The following month, Our Children's Trust filed a petition to have the case reheard, and years of litigation followed. In May 2024, a federal appeals court struck down the lawsuit at the request of the Biden administration, per The Guardian. Our Children's Trust founder Julia Olson decried it as a "tragic and unjust ruling."

Yet again, the plaintiffs requested a rehearing, ultimately petitioning the Supreme Court in December 2024. In March 2025, the Court "denied [the] youth plaintiffs' petition for writ of certiorari," according to Columbia's case tracker.

KLCC Public Radio of Oregon indicated the ruling "effectively end[ed]" Juliana v. United States, but a defiant Olson said she and the young activists believed their efforts were more pressing than ever before.

"Now is not a time to sit back," Olson told KLCC. "Now is a time to stand up and not be scared, but to embrace democracy and be there with our youth, because they are going to live with all of this." 

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She stuck to her word. On September 23, Inside Climate News reported, the group and its attorneys brought their case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, headquartered in Washington, D.C. 

The IACHR reviews matters related to human rights violations and is empowered to both refer cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and to litigate them. In a September 25 press release, Juliana plaintiff Levi Draheim was quoted on the group's latest action.

"For over 50 years, the U.S. government has knowingly endangered our lives by driving the fossil fuel system that is destroying our climate. This is not neglect — it is deliberate harm," Draheim said.

Our Children's Trust global strategy deputy director Kelly Matheson spoke to Inside Climate News about why the group and law firm refused to abandon their quest.

"The advisory opinions have come out and basically said that this behavior by the U.S. has been a violation of existing law. It's been a violation of international human rights law. It's been a violation of customary international law," she began.

"So what the government has been doing for five decades is illegal," Matheson concluded.

In addition to requesting the IACHR visit the U.S. to witness the alleged rights violations, the plaintiffs asked the Commission, per the release, "to declare the case admissible, issue urgent precautionary measures, and consider the case's merits given its seriousness."

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