Love to see it!

Omg it’s beautiful here. Never thought Texas could look like this. This lowkey looks like Southern Europe.

BP announced this morning write downs of as much as $4.5 billion linked to its failed investments in green energy (to be fully disclosed during 3Q earnings)

SCOTUS this morning weighed the question of how many times, and from how many agencies, do you have to get a permit? news.bloomberglaw.com/enviro…

Who will be dean of UATX Law? The search has begun. Search committee: Judge James C. Ho, Judge Andrew S. Oldham, Judge Amul R. Thapar, and co-chairs Claire Brickman and Adam Biggs. Applications reviewed beginning October 20. Know the right person? Send this to them. Apply here: jobs.lever.co/uaustin/540fe3…

BIG update to my public-source SCOTUS tracking website scotustrack.com today! Some UI problems fixed, design sharpened, all stats updated for the OT26 term, and added a "Relists" section for relisted petitions. HAVE FUN!

Justice Clarence Thomas exposes just how far Boulder’s legal theory could reach, pressing its attorney on whether major retailers could be sued too. "Nothing in your theory prevents that either, right?" “Nothing in our theory prevents that.”

Suncor Attorney Kannon Shanmugam debunks the notion that the Clean Air Act’s saving clause authorizes climate claims against energy producers: “We would say in this context of climate change, when you are suing producers, you cannot do that. And I would say that the most telling thing is that neither respondent nor any of their 28 amici suggests that the saving clause in the Clean Air Act affirmatively authorizes claims in this context…”

Truly excellent lawyering on display this morning.

"This suit egregiously exceeds constitutional limits on state authority," acting SG Sarah Harris says. "Boulder's theory is that because global climate change causes some Colorado injury, Colorado can hold oil companies liable for all their fossil fuel activities worldwide."

.@KannonShanmugam, attorney for Suncor Energy, warns the climate lawfare campaign is rapidly expanding, with billions of dollars at stake in cases across the country. “We now are facing more than 60 cases brought by municipalities in this context... And I would submit that given the extraordinary magnitude of these cases, where in each of these cases plaintiffs are seeking billions of dollars of damages, that we need an answer to this question sooner rather than later.”

Incredible. I posted the wrong link. Here’s the right one. scotustrack.com

Chief Justice Roberts: “What makes [Suncor v. Boulder County] situation different from all those other ones where we’ve allowed them to proceed in state courts?” Sarah Harris, US Principal Deputy Solicitor General: “In all of those state tort cases, of course, you can regulate the out-of-state injury directly… The reason is the state imposing liability rule is saying, ‘Hey, if you bring your cars into my state, you bring opioids into my state, you are liable for conduct within my state.’ What it’s not saying is what Colorado is doing here: You are banned from making that product anywhere nationwide.”

🚨'WALL OF PRECEDENT' Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh notes a "wall of precedent" saying that "state tort law" does not apply to climate change harms.

Sarah Harris delivered a masterclass in oral advocacy during today’s argument.

Justice Thomas gets Boulder, Colorado’s attorney to admit that the locality’s lawfare against Suncor and Exxon would open up fossil fuel retailers to similar lawfare if SCOTUS were to rule in Boulder’s favor.

Case background and my brief for @ManhattanInst @BurkeLawTweets on the merits: manhattan.institute/article/…

Suncor Attorney Kannon Shanmugam: “The breadth of Boulder’s theory is astonishing. There is no limit on Boulder’s theory on who could be sued… Under Boulder’s theory, Boulder could tag me with personal jurisdiction when I am in Colorado in two weeks and sue me on a nuisance claim for refilling my car and thereby contributing to global climate change. There is simply no limit, and personal jurisdiction provides cold comfort in that regard.”

Boulder, Colorado, is suing Suncor and Exxon Mobil, seeking damages caused by global climate change. Liability would be based not on the company's actions in Colorado but on the extent its worldwide production and sale of fuels are found to have contributed to greenhouse gases in the global atmosphere. The case intrudes directly into foreign policy, a field the Constitution commits to the federal government, Hudson Distinguished Fellow Bill Barr notes. In @WSJopinion, Barr warns against local courts assigning liability and misusing state tort laws. Read: wsj.com/opinion/boulder-has-…

Suncor Attorney Kannon Shanmugam is right: Boulder's argument provides NO meaningful limit to the scope of lawsuits against energy companies. If Boulder gets its way, climate activist lawfare will have free rein to destroy American energy.