Pirate's Cove

It’s all about the Free Speech, you know

Climate change consumer deception lawsuits threaten free speech. Will the Supreme Court take note?

Courts are increasingly taking a close look at the validity of climate change lawsuits against oil producers. And for good reason: These cases severely test the boundaries of court jurisdiction, the breadth of tort law, the protections of due process and even the sanctity of free speech.

As one example of this scrutiny, last Oct. 3, the U.S. Supreme Court signaled a serious interest in the proper forum and scope for climate change litigation.

In Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County, the Supreme Court invited the solicitor general of the United States to weigh in, even though the United States is not a party to the litigation. The federal government is invited to file a brief with an official legal opinion of the federal government about the questions presented regarding the role of federal and state courts and the scope of federal and state common law for evaluating lawsuits alleging climate change injuries from fossil fuel production and consumption. These invitations are rare.

All of the cases similar to Suncor percolating across the country are focused on suing companies for the effects of climate change. Yet, each of these lawsuits also tack on “consumer deception” and related “greenwashing” claims. Both categories get a lot of attention, but the latter deserves special inspection.

Is there deception when companies claim they are Doing Something about climate apocalypse but aren’t really doing that much? Is it deception when that burger doesn’t look exactly like the one in the TV ad?

These so-called deception claims sometimes allege that the companies downplayed the impacts of climate change despite that there is no affirmative duty to share everything you know, especially when consumers in the market have access to the same information.

Companies have no duty to share anything as such. If they’re trying to make themselves look better to the cult, so be it.

Other times the greenwashing claims allege that the companies should not have been allowed to advertise about efforts they are making toward developing cleaner energy because these efforts were not as robust as the plaintiffs would have liked. Indeed, in several cases, the plaintiffs have essentially stated that these companies should not have been allowed to speak about their environmental successes because the only clean fossil fuel is no fossil fuel.

These consumer deception lawsuits are direct attacks on rights to speak and the corollary rights to not be compelled to speak. But there should be no climate change exception to free speech.

It’s a much longer article, well worth the read, so, let me note that the Warmists are part of the Modern Socialist movement, where the only rights are those they Approve of. You are not allowed to do or say anything that contradicts their beliefs. And they will use all sorts of methods, from bullying to lawsuits to government force to erode your rights. I’ve been saying this since the mid-2000’s, that this really has little to do with science, and people are finally catching up.

The writer of the piece is Donald J. Kochan, a professor of law and the executive director of the Law & Economics Center at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, and you can bet the little moonbats at the school will try and have him cancelled for daring to write it.