Update on Comer
On Monday, January 10, 2011, the Supreme Court announced that it denied the plaintiffs’ petition for writ of mandamus in In re Comer, No. 10-294. This means that the Supreme Court will not review the procedural issue of whether the Fifth Circuit had a sufficient quorum to dismiss the appeal, and thus that the decision of the U.S. District for the Southern District of Mississippi to dismiss Comer on political question and standing grounds will stand.
The Supreme Court, however, previously had agreed to review political question doctrine and standing issues in the climate change context in AEP v. Connecticut, No. 10-174 (certiorari granted Dec. 6, 2010). A decision in that case is expected this year. The Comer decision also does not prevent plaintiffs from filing new climate change-related tort suits in the Fifth Circuit. The Comer trial court decision is persuasive authority only even in the Southern District of Mississippi.
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