1A in Action: Claire Vlases and Petitioning to Protect the Environment

Growing up on a small farm in Bozeman, Montana, Claire Vlases connected her identity to the land and what her family grew on it. While in elementary school, she sold vegetables from her family’s farm at a local farmer’s market to fundraise for causes that were important to her.

“Social justice and funding things that matter to me have always been really connected to agriculture and my farming background,” she said.

That connection to the land through farming carried into her middle and high school years.

When her middle school was being remodeled, she asked the principal to include solar panels. Planners turned down her idea, citing the cost. While initially “crushed,” Vlases says she had learned from her vegetable stand that she could fundraise. So she did, raising nearly $120,000 for the project. The remodel included the solar panels she had pushed for and helped make possible.

At home in Bozeman, where a river runs through the land, she said she noticed changes in the landscape over the years as she observed the environment and worked as a ski instructor – less water, fewer ski days, declining snowpack – and connected it to a changing climate.

Vlases wanted to take action. As a high school student not yet old enough to vote, she joined a lawsuit initiated by the climate advocacy group Our Children’s Trust that sought to find the government of Montana liable for violating the state constitution’s guarantee of a clean environment.

She says her parents advised against joining the lawsuit, saying it could close doors for her in the future if she sued the government.

“So with that in mind, I decided to go forward with it,” she said. “Because I thought it was something that was worthy of my attention.”

Editor's note: This profile is part of an ongoing series, 1A in Action, which highlights individuals who fought for their — and other people's — First Amendment freedoms.

What’s at stake:

The First Amendment right to petition includes filing lawsuits against the government to ask for change. Even those who are not old enough to vote have a voice in asking for change through petition, which also includes actions like speaking before your city council to push for a new law, testifying before your state legislature, or writing to your member of Congress.

What happened:

The lawsuit, Held v. Montana, was filed in March 2020 and included Vlases and 15 other youth co-plaintiffs. They argued that the state’s fossil fuel-based energy system, economy, and environmental policy regulations harmed them and their right to a “clean and healthful environment” under the state constitution.

It took three years to go to trial as lawyers for the youth and the state collected evidence.

Over eight days in June 2023, Vlases and other co-plaintiffs shared in court their experiences growing up in Montana and relayed how they felt the state was denying them their rights under the state constitution. It was the first time a climate change issue made it to court over rights in a state constitution.

Two months later, Judge Kathy Seeley ruled in favor of the youth, writing in her order that they “have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life-support system.”

The state appealed, but in December 2024 the Montana Supreme Court sided with the youth, upholding Judge Seeley’s ruling.

Freedom Forum named the youth plaintiffs, including Vlases, as recipients of a Free Expression Award in June 2024. After high school, she left her home state for California to attend Claremont McKenna College to study computer science and ethics, and she spoke on climate issues at the 2024 UNA-USA Global Engagement Summit.

What Claire Vlases says:

Vlases learned a lot about fundraising and advocating for what you believe in by diving into the solar panel project and the lawsuit. She has this advice for other young people looking to use their voice, even if they’re too young to vote or serve in government:

“As a young person, it's hard to feel like you are taken seriously, especially when you present an idea that's really big without clear steps on how to do it or the experience that a lot of people have to actually make changes. But I find that really valuable, actually, when young people do present ideas to have real, positive change.”

Why it matters to you:

Like Vlases and her co-plaintiffs, you have the right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances” under the First Amendment – regardless of age. Freedom Forum’s annual "Where America Stands" survey shows most people don’t know the right to petition is one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Though you have the right to petition, whether by filing a lawsuit against the government or by other means like writing to your state legislature, there is no requirement for the government to act in your favor. However, like the other freedoms – religion, speech, press and assembly – you cannot be punished or retaliated against for using your guaranteed First Amendment freedoms.

Claire Vlases’ inspiration:

Vlases says her connection to the case gave her an appreciation for the First Amendment, as it grants her “the freedom to say what I want without worry of persecution.”

“The fact that I could hold my government accountable while talking about my experiences as a young person and really telling my truth – that is the First Amendment in action, and that is the First Amendment to me.”

Ask an expert:

The nation's founders intended the First Amendment to do more than other parts of the Bill of Rights. While most of those 10 amendments provide for a specific right or for protection against government actions (unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, excessive fines, and such), the First Amendment's 45 words power free thought, free expression and the right to speak truth to power, as we and others may see it.

– Gene Policinski, senior fellow for the First Amendment, Freedom Forum

Learn more:

There’s lots to learn about the freedom of petition and the First Amendment. Here’s more on freedom of petition. Here’s more about freedom of speech and some of its limits. And here’s much more about the First Amendment.

Keep in touch:

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