Hot Times at the High Court: Suncor v. Boulder County and the Future of Climate Litigation

Add to Calendar: Add to Calendar: 2026-10-13 12:00:00 2026-10-13 13:00:00 Hot Times at the High Court: Suncor v. Boulder County and the Future of Climate Litigation Event Description This event is in-person (with lunch) for CWRU students, faculty, and staff, and virtual for everyone else.In recent years, dozens of state and local governments have filed suit against fossil fuel companies in state courts under state law seeking compensation for present and anticipated harms caused by climate change. One of these cases, Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, is the first case on the U.S. Supreme Court's docket for the October 2026 term. In Suncor, the justices are asked to decide whether federal law or the Constitution preempts state law-based tort claims against companies that produce or market fossil fuels seeking damages for the consequences of climate change. The resulting decision could have widespread implications for climate change policy, as well as for the American system of federalism. This event will review the issues and arguments before the Supreme Court in Suncor, analyze the oral argument, and consider the case's broader implications.Speakers:Jonathan Adler, Cabell Research Professor and Tazewell Taylor Professor of LawJonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.Paul Salamanca, Wendell H. Ford Professor of Law, University of KentuckyPaul E. Salamanca graduated from Dartmouth College in 1983 and Boston College Law School in 1989, where he was a note editor for the Boston College Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.Professor Salamanca served as a law clerk to Judge David H. Souter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and subsequently clerked for Justice Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. He practiced law with the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York from 1991 to 1994 and was a visiting assistant professor of law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans before joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Law in June 1995.From 2019 until 2021, Professor Salamanca served as a Senior Counsel and then as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the United States Department of Justice.  His duties included supervision of the Natural Resources and Land Acquisition Sections of ENRD.Professor Salamanca writes in the areas of separation of powers, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and privacy. He has published articles on these subjects in the University of Cincinnati Law Review, the Missouri Law Review, the Georgia Law Review, and the Kentucky Law Journal, among other places.  CWRU School of Law, A62 (Active Learning Classroom) School of Law School of Law America/New_York public