By Karen Savage
The acting solicitor general will be allowed time to argue in support of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and nearly two dozen other companies next week during oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has agreed to review a technical ruling by the Fourth Circuit in a climate liability lawsuit filed by Baltimore.
The high court granted the request Friday, after Acting Solicitor General Jeffery B. Wall requested he be allowed to use 10 minutes of the fossil fuel companies’ time, which the energy giants have agreed to cede.
“The United States and its officers are frequent litigants, and it therefore has a significant interest in the proper application of statutory provisions governing federal appellate jurisdiction,” Wall wrote in a motion filed last month.
Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at the Vermont Law School, said the granting of Wall’s request by the Supreme Court isn’t unusual—even considering Wall will likely be out of that post two days later when President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated and begins the process of installing his own administration.
[Read more…]