The Trump administration is fighting a court ruling that would require EPA to regulate fluoride in drinking water as a threat to children’s brain development.
Department of Justice attorneys argue the risk to children is “not caused by the addition of fluoride to drinking water, and no remedy available in this case will redress it,” according to the government’s opening brief filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday afternoon.
The filing is the first that indicates the Trump agencies’ intention to carry on with the Biden administration’s appeal of the district court’s September 2024 decision, a rare occurrence of a judge ruling against EPA’s science.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cited last year’s ruling as one of the main reasons he is treating fluoridated drinking water as a serious health problem and core pillar of his “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
