Opponents of efforts to strip away billions of dollars in federal grants are adopting a new legal strategy prompted by a Supreme Court that has largely deferred to President Donald Trump.
A coalition of Democratic-led states for the first time deployed a one-two punch earlier this month against the administration’s clawback of a $7 billion solar program for low-income households, filing not one, but two lawsuits against EPA.
In keeping with the typical rollout of multistate legal challenges, one suit landed in federal district court, where the states will argue that the government broke the law when it walked back money it had already awarded.
But in a departure from their usual procedures, the states also filed suit in a specialized court in the nation’s capital — one that the Supreme Court has suggested in short emergency orders is better equipped to decide disputes over terminated grants.
