Woke lawfare may sound like something happening in California, Washington, D.C., or someplace else far from the lives of everyday consumers in “Real America,” but it is a real threat to everyday consumers because it represents the Left’s strategy for turning courtrooms across the country into ideological printing presses that impose left-wing policy priorities on our society.
Across the country, activists and woke trial lawyers are using lawsuits, settlements, and injunctions to wipe away products and impose their ideological will through climate, diversity, and corporate-governance mandates voters never approved and legislatures would never pass. The new Lawfare in America report put out by Alliance for Consumers documents examples of this lawfare in action, and how the Left is weaponizing everything from more quotidian employment lawsuits to massive public nuisance lawsuits in a concerted effort to obtain relief that is far beyond what any statute, regulation or other government edict actually requires.
One of the cases detailed in the new report is the Kansas case of Ford County, Kansas v. Exxon, Chevron, Dow, which shows the woke lawfare playbook in action. Ford County officials, backed by a national climate network, sued to brand plastics a “public nuisance.” The demand list looks like a climate policy wish list: billions in “abatement,” court supervised changes to how companies describe recycling, and restrictions on the very products Kansans use every day. And the courts have yet to put a stake in this case on their own.
Another case detailed in the report is the Louisiana case of Plaquemines Parish v. Chevron, which is now before the Supreme Court of the United States, wherein coastal parishes, working with Democrat-aligned trial lawyers, are seeking billions over historic energy company operations dating back to World War II. The case has already produced a $745 million judgment and several settlements, while companion suits like Inclusive Louisiana v. St. James Parish push for court-imposed moratoria on further energy operations.
The list of cases goes on and on, but the message is clear: as this lawfare progresses, everyday Americans lose their voice over what products are available, how companies operate, and which social priorities public agencies pursue.
Thankfully, Kansas is showing us all how to push back where it matters most – by passing reforms that hem in ideological causes of action in state court and help ground our courts in common sense, leaving real policymaking in the hands of elected lawmakers. Senate Bills 462 and 463 in Kansas, which address public nuisance claims and lawsuits that profit off criminal activity, will help end the ideological lawsuit machine in Kansas and are exactly the kind of pro-consumer, pro-rule-of-law reforms other states should emulate.
SB 462 draws a firm line on nuisance: lawful, government-approved products can’t be branded “nuisances” just because activists dislike them. It demands real causation, routes claims through the state attorney general, and requires “special injury” for private suits. The bill protects Kansas families, farmers, and small businesses from policy by lawsuit and hems in the Left.
SB 463 similarly hems the Left in by ensuring that those who commit crimes can’t later profit from them. It prevents criminals and other wrongdoers from suing for injuries arising from their wrongful conduct, whether it is a porch pirate who slips on a stoop or a criminal who hurts themselves during a break-in. It focuses negligence law in Kansas on genuine victims while stopping activists from turning crime into a policy tool or a profit center.
Together, these reforms set a model for other states.
Without action, this woke lawfare will reshape society around us, even in places where liberals are on the electoral ropes. The time for action is now, before it is too late. And Kansas is showing the way.
