A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss a California lawsuit challenging the termination of $4 billion in grants for its high-speed rail project.
What happened: U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd, in a decision published Wednesday, pushed back on the administration’s argument that the fight over Obama- and Biden-era grants that the Federal Railroad Administration nixed in July is a contract dispute that is under federal claims court jurisdiction.
Consideration of previous legal precedents “support the court’s conclusion that plaintiff’s claim is not a disguised breach of contract claim,” Drozd wrote.
Why it matters: The decision keeps alive California’s hope of recouping federal funding the officials had factored into construction costs for building the initial leg — though the state’s Central Valley — of its planned rail line connecting the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
