The United States argues there is no constitutional right to a stable climate

[EmperorScorpious]

I see where you're going with this, but that line is establishing why the rules that follow afterward are established. As in the articles of constitution following that line, which are fairly specific, are geared toward promoting the general welfare. It does not say "the government shall promote general welfare" as an open-ended, vague power. Its saying, through these Congressional powers, the general welfare is to be promoted. And there are no articles in the Constitution regarding protecting the environment, for better or worse because the founders didn't and couldn't ever view that as an actual issue in the future. But that's why they left us the amendment process.

[XUZUL]

You must survive, to then die immediately later

that's so jesus

[spazthemax]

This is a problem way, way, bigger than even the constitution

It boils my blood when anyone uses the argument that their actions are right or morally justified because they don't break any of the currently existing rules.

[Jessica Cannon]

You reap the whirlwind you sow, fuckers. Your children's children will die screaming in a conflagration, hammering at the walls of a crumbling fortress-city in the last habitable spot on Earth as the ash-storms consume them just like all the others. And all of it will have been for nothing. All of your trinkets and jewels will mean nothing. All of your towers and spires will mean nothing. Mother Nature is the greatest god of all, and she never defaults on her debts.

[K0mori]

You have no right to survive make your time
Ha ha ha

[AxeI]

The US constitution already mandates incredibly specific things like gun ownership as a fundamental right, rather than doing it through a regular law like you'd see in other democratic nations. I don't see how adding something to protect literal civilization would be a stretch.

[FFStudios]

lol @ everyone in this thread who things this is a bad thing. all they fucking said was "No, we cannot create new laws for the Constitution by pulling them out of our ass."

could you imagine what would happen if you could pass Constitutional referendums by way of legal action? jesus fucking christ we'd be living in several magnitudes more of a Trump hellscape

[EmperorScorpious]

What do you mean "rather than doing it through regular law"? The constitution is the highest law in the country, why wouldn't fundamental rights be put there?

Also, technically speaking, the right to a clean climate not being in the Bill of Rights legally automatically gets put onto the individual states to handle via the 10th Amendment.

[Snowmew]

Constitutional amendments can only be made with a two-thirds majority of Congress and 38 majority votes in state legislatures (three-fourths of the states).

So no, it's not just a stretch, it's practically impossible.

[AxeI]

It's a law regarding the ownership of a very specific type of item, not one that statutes on basic concepts necessary for a proper democracy to function or to protect human rights. That type of legislation is rarely part of a country's constitution.

If gun ownership is to be considered a fundamental right, I don't see why living in a stable environment shouldn't.