The US Supreme Court has rejected a bid by President Donald Trump's administration to block for now a trial in a lawsuit filed by young activists who have accused the US government of ignoring the perils of climate change.
The loss for the administration means it now faces a high-profile examination of US climate change policy during the trial that was due to begin on October 29 in Eugene, Oregon but has since been postponed by the judge.
Chief Justice John Roberts on October 19 had temporarily put the case on hold while the court as a whole decided how to proceed.
The Supreme Court's three-page order noted that the administration may still have grounds to take its arguments to the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch indicated they would have granted the administration's request.
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In the lawsuit, 21 activists, ages 11 to 22, said federal officials violated their rights to due process under the US Constitution by failing to adequately address carbon pollution such as emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
The lawsuit was filed in 2015 against former President Barack Obama and government agencies in a federal court in Eugene, Oregon. Both the Obama and Trump administrations have failed in efforts to have the lawsuit thrown out.
