California Climate Nuisance Cases Will Also Be Heard In State Court (I Think)

The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued two rulings that, combined with the recent 4^th Circuit ruling in the Baltimore case, makes it more likely that state and local public nuisance climate cases will be heard in state courts, rather than federal courts. The two California cases got to the 9^th Circuit via different routes.

San Mateo v. Chevron is on all fours with the recent 4^th Circuit decision. As in Baltimore, the defendants in San Mateo removed to federal court, but the federal judge remanded to state court. The defendants appealed the remand, but the removal statute is very clear that, except in limited circumstances pretty obviously not in play here, even plainly wrong remand orders are not reviewable by courts of appeal. Moreover, since the 9^th Circuit and the 4^th Circuit agreed, there is no circuit split to tempt SCOTUS. Although a circuit split is still possible given pending cases in other circuits, it seems likely that, where a federal judge