Public Nuisance Reform Act

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Policy Status

  • Type: Model Policy
  • Status: Draft
  • Date Introduced: July 23, 2026

Task Forces

  • Judiciary

    • Tags

  • 2026 Annual Meeting

    • Summary

    Activists have weaponized public nuisance in recent years to obtain ideological goals and target disfavored industries such as lawful gun manufacturing, disposable plastic packaging, and the nation’s energy industry. Public nuisance has long existed as a way to remedy more everyday, local interferences with rights common to the public, such as obstruction of highways or streams. But now public nuisance has become a tool to reshape American society through the courtroom and impose social change by court order. States should act to put statutory guardrails in place to preserve important public nuisance principles while ending its use as an ideological weapon against everyday products.    
    Draft

    Public Nuisance Reform Act

    Section 1. Public Nuisance Exemptions 

    • (A) In addition to any other claim, action, or condition determined by the courts applying the common law not to constitute or give rise to a cause of action for public nuisance, and notwithstanding any other law, the following list of actions or conditions shall not be considered a public nuisance or otherwise form the basis for a public nuisance cause of action under the laws of this state: 
      1. The design, manufacturing, distributing, selling, labeling, packaging, or marketing of a product sold in commerce, except an illegal product; or 
      2. An action or condition that is authorized, approved, licensed, or mandated by  statute, ordinance, regulation, permit, license, order, rule, or other similar measure issued, adopted, promulgated, or approved by a governmental entity. 
    • (B) For purposes of this section, the following terms are defined as follows:  
      1. “Governmental entity” means an officer, agency, or instrumentality of the federal government, this state, or a political subdivision of the state. 
      2. “Illegal product” means a product, the possession of which by the party alleged to be creating the nuisance is specifically prohibited by a federal or state statute, including but not limited to [state uniform controlled substances act]. 

    Section 2. Public Nuisance Action by Governmental Entity 

    • (A) A public nuisance cause of action may be brought by, on the relation of, or in the name of a political subdivision of this state, or any body or officer thereof, only if the alleged public nuisance is wholly contained within the jurisdiction of that political subdivision.  
    • (B) In all circumstances other than subsection (A), of this Section, no government agency or officer other than the Attorney General may bring a public nuisance cause of action under the laws of this State. 

    Section 3. Public Nuisance Action by Private Person 

    • (A) A public nuisance claim may be brought by a private person only if that person has sustained a special injury proximately caused by the defendant’s conduct, and only if the person proves, by clear and convincing evidence, the existence of the special injury caused by the defendant. A public nuisance claim by a private person must be brought by verified complaint, counterclaim, or third-party claim that pleads each element with particularity as required by [Rule 9 of the Rules of Civil Procedure]. 
    • (B) A special injury under this Section is an injury that is different in kind, not just in degree, from an injury sustained by the general public exercising the same public right. A special injury is not one based upon impairment of the spiritual, cultural, or emotional significance associated with a navigable lake, river, bay, stream, canal, or basin or a public park, square, street, road, or highway. 
    • (C) Financial expenditures made by a private person related to an injunction of, or any other response to, a public nuisance does not constitute a special injury sufficient to confer standing on the person to file or maintain a public nuisance action. 
    • (D) The remedy available to a private person in a public nuisance action is limited solely to compensatory damages for the special injury that are not otherwise reimbursed by a governmental entity, as defined in Section 1(B)(1). 
    • (E) The abatement of a public nuisance by the defendant does not preclude the right of a person to recover compensatory damages under this section. 
    • (F) A private person may not bring a class action for a public nuisance. 

    Section 4. Statute of Limitations and Repose  

    • (A) No claim for public nuisance may be brought against a defendant more than three years after the plaintiff knew or should have known of the conduct of the defendant that caused the nuisance. 
    • (B) No claim for public nuisance may recover any damages or other monetary relief for a defendant’s conduct occurring more than 10 years before the date on which the complaint was filed. 

    Section 5. Preemption 

    It is the intent of the Legislature that this Act abrogates the common law of public nuisance in this state to the extent the common law is inconsistent with this Act. 

    Section 6. Effective Date and Effect on Statute of Limitations 

    The Legislature intends for this Act to apply to all claims that are pending on or after theeffective date of this Act. If a pending public nuisance claim can only be brought by the Attorney General following the effective date of this act, the Attorney General shall be automatically substituted as the Plaintiff under [Rule 25(d) of the Rules of Civil Procedure]. Nothing in this act extends or reopens the statute of limitations applicable to a claim for public nuisance that arose before the effective date of this act. 

    Section 7. Severability