A Truman-era law governing the wonky federal rulemaking process could blunt the impacts of a blockbuster Supreme Court move that limited lower courts’ ability to block the Trump administration.
Environmental lawyers stung by the high court’s ruling are taking some solace in the fact that the Administrative Procedure Act — a 1946 law that governs how federal rules are written and is at the heart of many legal challenges against government agencies’ actions — still allows lower courts to “hold unlawful and set aside agency action.”
Legal experts say that’s still a viable avenue for halting the Trump administration’s moves after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling — penned by Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett — limited lower courts’ use of “universal” injunctions to block administration policies.
“When it comes to something that is challenged under the APA, the court has explicitly said that kind of action still survives,” said Joel Eisen, an energy law expert and professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.
