On August 6, 2025, a state court judge in South Carolina dismissed the climate change tort lawsuit filed by the City of Charleston against a number of major fossil fuel companies. (This lawsuit was one of approximately three dozen that have been filed over the past decade on behalf of state and local governments against fossil fuel companies, asserting damages due to climate change under various state tort laws.) In his decision, Judge Young not only held that “Federal law precludes and preempts Plaintiff's claims,” but also determined that the “Court lacks personal jurisdiction over certain Defendants because Plaintiff's claims are not related to and do not arise out of those Defendants' alleged activities in South Carolina.” This legal reasoning, which echoes other decisions that have di

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