The result means victory for about 30 energy companies that were being sued by Mississippi homeowners who claimed that by emitting greenhouse gases, the companies helped cause global warming and exacerbated Katrina's wrath.

Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a request to reopen a lawsuit that charged energy companies with contributing to the effects of Hurricane Katrina by emitting greenhouse gases.
u.s.-supreme-court-building.JPGThe Associated PressThe U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

The result means victory for about 30 energy companies that were being sued by Mississippi homeowners who claimed that by emitting greenhouse gases, the companies helped cause global warming and exacerbated Katrina's wrath.

The Supreme Court was asked to step in after so many members of the 16-judge 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had recused themselves that it could not conduct a rehearing of a partially successful appeal of the suit.

At issue for the nation's highest court was the question of whether the 5th Circuit should have dismissed the appeal after determining that it lacked a quorum.

Under the circuit court's rules, the court's original three-judge decision in favor of the homeowners had been vacated after the full court agreed to rehear the case, and the appeal was dismissed by the failure to get a quorum.

The 5th Circuit's failure to rehear the case meant that the original ruling of the U.S. District Court in Mississippi throwing out the homeowners' suit was reinstated, and the Supreme Court's failure to hear the challenge of the 5th Circuit's non-decision means that the decision by U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. in Mississippi stays in place.

The rest of the story.

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