[4][5] The plaintiffs argued that the state's support of the fossil fuel industry had worsened the effects of climate change on their lives, thus depriving them of their constitutional rights.

[4][5] More specifically, the plaintiffs challenged a provision in the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) that prohibited the state from considering greenhouse gas emissions as a factor when deciding whether to issue permits for energy-related projects.

[9][11] On August 14, 2023, Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled in favor of the plaintiffs that the limitations on considering environmental factors when deciding oil and gas permits violated the right to a safe environment recited in Montana’s constitution.

[13] Mining interests heavily influenced the content of the original (1889) Constitution of Montana, causing subsequent laws to highly favor extractive industry,[5][14] with some historians even calling the state a "corporate colony".

[14] Despite the 1972 amendment, according to The Guardian, policy experts say Montana officials have shaped state laws around the deeply entrenched financial interests of the fossil fuel industry.

[6] In 2011, nonprofit law firm Our Children's Trust asked the Montana Supreme Court to rule that the state has a duty to address climate change.

[5] On March 13, 2020, Our Children's Trust and other law firms filed the Held v. Montana complaint in the First Judicial District Court, Lewis and Clark County, in Helena.

[2][4] On April 14, 2023, State District Judge Michael Moses ruled that the permit for NorthWestern Energy's $250 million Laurel Generation Station on the Yellowstone River in Montana, was cancelled as the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) had misinterpreted the state's environmental law and had failed to consider the long-term consequences of carbon dioxide emissions from the plant,[22] which are estimated at "23 million tons" that "would impact" the town of Billings that is downwind of the Laurel Generation Station.

[23] In response to the decision by Judge Moses, on April 15, House Bill 971 was introduced, sponsored by Representative Joshua Kassmier R-Fort Benton and was quickly passed into law.

[23] A Senate Bill 557 amendment sponsored by Sen. Mark Noland, R-Bigfork, which is very similar to HB 971, and was also a response to the Moses decision on the Laurel plant, was introduced on April 14.

[29] Clinical psychiatrist Lise Van Susteren, co-founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, described the emotional toll on the plaintiffs when they recognize what lies in their future, characterizing their experience as "pretraumatic stress".

[29] Russell also said that the plaintiffs' case tried to turn a "procedural matter" into "a weeklong hearing of political grievances that properly belong to the legislature and not a court of law.

[11] Judge Seeley's August 14, 2023 judgment ruled in favor of the youth plaintiffs, declaring the 2023 version of the MEPA limitation (HB 971) and a similar 2023 law (SB 557) to be unconstitutional.

[37] Our Children's Trust's founder, Julia Olson, noted that Held v. Montana marked the first time in U.S. history that the merits of a case led a court to rule that a government violated young people’s constitutional rights by promoting fossil fuel usage.