This is The Day Montana Kids Stood Up To Trump

Today in Butte, Montana, 22 young Americans and their attorneys filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and several members of his administration for violating their constitutional rights.¹ In this suit, they assert that Trump’s executive orders on energy, permitting, science, and national emergencies are depriving them of life and liberty with no due process. An early statement in the lawsuit clearly makes their claim.

Today’s MT Public Radio Story Caption on the case

“From day one of the current administration, President Trump has issued directives to increase fossil fuel use and production and block an energy transition to wind, solar, battery storage, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles (“EVs”). Plaintiffs reserve the right to amend this Complaint to the extent Defendants issue additional unconstitutional directives to “unleash” fossil fuels or other unconstitutional orders and actions that deny Plaintiffs access to critical information about climate change science. President Trump’s EOs falsely claim an energy emergency, while the true emergency is that fossil fuel pollution is destroying the foundation of Plaintiffs’ lives. These unconstitutional directives have the immediate effect of (a) slowing the buildout of U.S. energy infrastructure that eliminates planet-heating fossil fuel greenhouse gas pollution (“GHGs” or “climate pollution”); and (b) increasing the use of fossil fuels that pollute the air, water, lands, and climate on which Plaintiffs’ lives depend.”

It’s a surreal thing to see brave young patriots throw such high-profile punches at the all-powerful President of the United States, particularly after his ugly streak of intimidation and personal attacks. But it’s also oddly empowering to know that many of the wealthiest people in this country have so quickly and cowardly caved to this administration in such shameful fashion, while these kids effectively stand tall and yell, “not on our watch!”

People in Montana have come to expect bravery like this from our kids, and ten of the 22 plaintiffs in this case are from our state, two of whom are my sons, Badge and Lander. These are the same kids who took on the state government of Montana for violating their plainly written constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. I watched every minute of that multi-day trial and took particular notice of the heroic first witness.

Badge and Lander during the Held V Montana case, and also before Badge was 3 inches taller than me

Mae Nan Ellingson is no longer a kid, but she is a proud Montanan. She should also be a constitutional conservative’s dream because Mae Nan is a walking, talking framer. Yes, the same creature that so many conservatives blabber endlessly about as they pretend to care about the original intent of our most sacred governing documents.

But Ellinson, who was 24 years old and the youngest delegate to the Montana constitutional convention in 1973, is not someone to be blabbered about. That much was clear from the moment she strode into the hushed courtroom.

This powerful woman of immense intellect insisted on driving her own E.V. from Missoula to Helena on the opening morning of the trial. “I’ll not be picked up in some big gas-guzzling car to be driven to a climate case, if I’m late, I’m late,” she insisted in the days leading up to the case.

During her two hours on the stand, she forcefully explained to the attorneys and judge that the right to a clean and healthful environment, as written in our state constitution, was intended to protect Montana kids' rights and that it included the climate. She went on to explain that she was in a position to know because she was the one who wrote those words in Article IV, along with our beautiful constitutional preamble. The entire exchange was a wonderful and incredibly powerful Montana moment.

Mae Nan Ellingson with me at an event in the Bitteroot Valley

The Montana kids testified in their own powerful ways and went on to win the case, the first of its kind in our nation. But not long after inauguration day in 2025, the Trump administration leveled its sights at their federal constitutional rights, knowing full well that there is no living Mae Nan to set them straight about what the U.S. constitutional framers actually meant about life and liberty.

Held V Montana Plaintiffs (Badge and Lander Center Back Row)

That did not stop the Montana Kids and their dedicated attorneys, who quickly joined with other plaintiffs from HI and OR to begin working on their case. Today, their new case was filed, and the New York Times ran a story that contained this excerpt;

“Trump’s fossil fuel orders are a death sentence for my generation,” said Eva Lighthiser, 19, the named plaintiff. “I’m not suing because I want to. I’m suing because I have to. My health, my future, and my right to speak the truth are all on the line.”²

I know Eva to be a fun-loving kid from Livingston who, among other things, lived through catastrophic flooding on the Yellowstone caused by rain and rapid snowmelt exacerbated by climate change. (She’s in the pic above, back row, far left)

Today, as this all unfolds, I can’t help but think that someone or something is trying to send a message of warning and support to these kids and their legal team because as I sit and type here in Kalispell, MT, the temperature is 89 degrees, which is 21 degrees higher than the average high for this date.³ A few dozen miles south of here, there is a fire burning near the Flathead River at Moise. It’s a place my boys love in Aug and Sept, and it’s May 29, a full 2 months from what anyone would consider an early fire season. In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, there are fires burning so severely that they have prompted massive evacuations that are the “worst in most people’s living memory.” ⁴

All I can say is Godspeed, you brave Montana kids.

Godspeed.

Smoke rises from wildfire WE024 in Manitoba, Canada - May 2025

1. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/655a2d016eb74e41dc292ed5/t/6837c215838baf09810e9d2c/1748484630963/2025.05.29.Complaint+Final.pdf

2. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/climate/youth-climate-lawsuit-trump-executive-orders.html

3. https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/mt/kalispell/KGPI

4. https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/29/weather/canada-wildfires-smoke-midwest-climate