For the first time, the Department of Justice is arguing in court that it can kill efforts by U.S. citizens to enforce federal environmental laws — a legal theory that could weaken one of the nation’s checks on pollution at a time when the Trump administration has pulled back its efforts to police air and water contamination.
DOJ made its case last week in a brief in federal district court in Mississippi supporting xAI, a startup founded by Tesla CEO and former White House adviser Elon Musk.
If successful, the Trump administration’s attempt to quash Americans’ rights to file their own enforcement efforts under the Clean Air Act — as the NAACP and environmental groups have done against xAI — is expected to extend to other federal environmental, antitrust and civil rights laws that contain citizen enforcement provisions.
DOJ’s fight would also strip away a key strategy for environmental groups as the Trump administration has backed away from federal enforcement and gone after states for writing their own frameworks for combating pollution.
