Twenty-one young people on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive a novel lawsuit claiming the U.S. government’s energy policies violate their rights to be protected from climate change.

The youth activists in a so-called petition for a writ of mandamus, opens new tab argued that the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May overstepped its authority by taking the “extraordinary” step of ordering a federal judge in Oregon to dismiss the case.

The 9th Circuit did so at the urging of the U.S. Department of Justice after the Oregon judge allowed the young people’s lawyers to amend their 2015 complaint to address problems the appeals court raised in an earlier 2020 ruling in the case.

The young people’s lawyers at the non-profit Our Children’s Trust argued the 9th Circuit “clearly and indisputably exceeded the lawful exercise of its prescribed jurisdiction” in intervening in the case pre-trial to order its dismissal.

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** Image Credit – Students take part in a climate change rally in Denver, Colorado, U.S. October 11, 2019. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights