WASHINGTON – A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court undermined Friday a huge jury verdict from Plaquemines Parish and more than 40 lawsuits filed by local, parish and state governments seeking recompense from the oil companies they claim tore up Louisiana’s coastal marshes in the search for fossil fuels, The Advocate is reporting.
The 8-0 decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas in Chevron USA Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish is a narrow ruling on a technical legal issue. It essentially requires federal courts, rather than state district courts, to decide claims that companies should pay for alleged pollution and hastened erosion along the coastline, the newspaper reports.
Justice Samuel Alito, the ninth member of the high court, didn’t participate because he owned stock in one of the energy companies.
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