Exxon Climate Change Investigation Updates

Exxon's dispute with Massachusetts AG Maura Healey's civil investigative demand related to Exxon's knowledge of climate change both deepened and potentially widened in the last week.

First, on October 13, 2016 United States District Judge Ed Kinkeade handed down an order that will allow Exxon to conduct discovery on Healey's motives for issuing the CID. The order stems from the AG's argument, in moving to dismiss, that Exxon's claim is improperly before the federal court in the Northern District of Texas pursuant to Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971), in which the Supreme Court held that federal courts should abstain from hearing civil rights claims related to criminal prosecutions in state court while such proceedings are ongoing. This policy, aimed at limiting undue federal interference with state courts, can also apply to civil proceedings where important state interests are at stake. See Health Net, Inc. v. Wooley, 534 F.3d 487, 494 (5th Cir. 2008). Because proceedings related to the CID are ongoing in Massachusetts Superior Court, the AG argued for Younger abstention.

Judge Kinkeade resisted the AG's Younger abstention argument, however, arguing that the doctrine may not be available if the CID was primarily political in motive. Judge Kinkeade recounted AG Healey's attendance at the March 29, 2016 press conference of AGs United for Clean Power, including a speech in which Healey called for "quick, aggressive action, educating the public, [and] holding accountable those who have needed to be held accountable for far too long." Judge Kinkeade characterized the speech...