Border Wall Waivers—A Continuing Problem
In January 2017, I warned that it was not too soon to begin thinking about reining in the Trump administration’s ability to use the waiver authority that the Congress adopted in 2005 to carry out its...
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A 2-Fer Update
Seth Jaffe and I have both previously blogged about Public Citizen v. Trump. It is the lawsuit challenging Trump’s Executive Order 13771 which, with some exceptions, mandates two existing federal...
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Look Before You Tweet, or How Not to Respond to Wild Fires
In a tweet released August 6, President Trump offered his analysis of how to combat the ongoing human and ecological tragedy of one of the worst fire seasons of record. The president then directed...
View ArticleFroggie Goes A Courtin’ in the Home of the Hapless Toad
John Roberts’ first opinion as a judge on the D.C. Circuit was a dissent from denial of rehearing en banc in an Endangered Species Act case. His opinion famously referred to the endangered species at...
View ArticlePresidential Memo to Boost Western Water Projects—Can it Succeed?
On October 19, President Trump issued a “Memorandum Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West.” The Memorandum calls for streamlining federal water infrastructure development and...
View ArticleTrees have no tongues, but the Lorax has one
Last month, in Cowpasture River Preservation Association v. Forest Service a panel of the 4th Circuit rejected the U.S. Forest Service approval of a pipeline development that would have crossed 21...
View ArticleWhat Happens When the Green New Deal Meets the Old Green Laws?
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey made headlines when introducing the Green New Deal resolution to Congress. Within milliseconds, contesting waves of support and opposition...
View ArticleTrump Track: Speed Bumps on the Road to Species Protection
On August 12, 2019, the Trump Administration adopted three new rules in an attempt to rein in the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The rules would undo a rule in place since 1978 affording protections...
View ArticleClimate Whack-a-Mole; or How the Trump Administration Institutionalizes...
Given the severity and finality of the extinction of species on this planet, and the myriad adverse impacts on human society and natural ecosystems of such extinction, Congress passed the hallmark...
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