In an op-ed published in the New York Times Wednesday, Columbia University Professor James Hansen claims that he has looked at the U.S. Constitution and has concluded that Americans have a Constitutional right to a "healthy climate."
As is so often the case these days, the Left's interpretation of the Constitution depends on whether or not their policy agenda is being adequately addressed by our elected officials.
"Congress and the president manifestly lack the requisite resolve," writes Hansen. "Accordingly, the court should immediately order the government to develop and implement a climate recovery plan."
In an effort to achieve his favored agenda, Hansen suggests skipping the legislative process altogether and allowing the court to write its own law that would limit carbon emissions and supposedly save the world. Hansen argues that the court should unilaterally implement a "rising fee on carbon emissions."
Hansen also cites the Founding Fathers, claiming that they intended for the court to be able to create new laws from scratch depending on their own ideological bent. He also cites the Fifth Amendment as justification for his hypothetical court-led environmental crusade.
He argues that by "permitting, authorizing, and subsidizing the exploitation, production, transport, and burning of fossil fuels, our government has caused or substantially contributed to the present emergency in which the very viability of a hospitable climate system is at stake."
Hansen then goes on to explain that this is in violation of "the fundamental guarantees of the Fifth Amendment, including the rights to life, liberty, property, and equal protection of the law."
In essence, Hansen's argument relies upon the idea that government inaction is unconstitutional if it their failure to act leads to negative consequences for American citizens. This concept could obviously be applied in dangerous ways if it ever became precedent.