A federal judge in Honolulu on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice that sought to prevent the state of Hawaii from suing several fossil fuel companies in state court over climate change. U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor said the suit ran afoul of a longstanding policy that disfavors federal interference in state court proceedings.
The decision represents the second time in 2026 that federal courts have declined the Justice Department's attempts to head off climate-related cases in state court. Earlier this year, in January, another federal judge rejected a comparable effort aimed at stopping the state of Michigan from pursuing litigation against major oil firms.
Neither the Justice Department nor the Hawaii Attorney General's office issued an immediate comment on the Honolulu ruling.
The Justice Department initiated lawsuits against both Hawaii and Michigan in April of 2025, asking federal courts to bar those states from filing planned lawsuits against prominent oil companies over claims tied to climate change. The administration argued at the time that such state court actions could threaten domestic energy production.
Hawaii filed suit against several fossil fuel companies one day after the Justice Department's action was filed. Named defendants in the state's complaint include BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell; Hawaii alleges those companies sold products the state says they knew would contribute to planetary warming.
In her written opinion, Judge Gillmor found that the Justice Department lacked standing to bring its challenge. She described the department's case as speculative, saying the attempt to forecast the outcome of a not-yet-filed lawsuit and how it might harm the federal government did not amount to a concrete injury-in-fact. As she wrote, the Justice Department's "attempt to predict the outcome of a yet-to-be-filed lawsuit and how it could possibly injure the federal government in the future is not a concrete injury-in-fact."
The decision in Honolulu follows the January ruling that similarly rejected a Justice Department effort to prevent Michigan from suing large oil companies. Together, the two rulings mark consecutive federal judicial pushbacks to the department's strategy of seeking to enjoin state climate litigation before those cases were litigated in state courts.
Separately, industry observers have noted investor interest in energy names. One market advisory posed the question: "Is CVX a bargain right now?" and referenced a valuation tool that combines multiple industry models to assess fair value. That commentary does not affect the legal rulings described above.
The Honolulu ruling leaves in place Hawaii's ability to proceed with its claims against the listed fossil fuel companies in state court, while reaffirming judicial reluctance to permit preemptive federal intervention in pending or anticipated state litigation when the asserted federal injury is speculative.