Since 2016, presidents and their administrations have increasingly drawn lawsuits arguing that they are overstepping their authority. In these ultra vires claims, litigants contend that presidential actions—including, for example, executive orders, proclamations, or memoranda, as well actions by executive agencies done at the President’s behest—exceed the scope of the authority […]
U.S. Climate Policy
23 posts
On Friday, June 27, the Supreme Court’s term closed and the Court handed down its final opinions, including in a case called Trump v. CASA. The CASA plaintiffs challenged President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, but the Court’s decision – which made no substantive holdings about citizenship or immigration […]
The first 100 days of the second Trump administration have proved volatile for local governments working to advance ambitious climate action. We have seen the freezing or termination of federal grants and other financial assistance, executive orders seeking to usurp state and local authority, the initiation of extensive deregulatory efforts, […]
This post is part of a new Climate Law Blog series, 100 Days of Trump 2.0, in which the Sabin Center offers reflections on the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term across a variety of climate-related topics. To read other posts from the series, which will roll out over […]
On April 8, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order entitled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach,” which directs the U.S. attorney general to work with department and agency heads to “identify all State and local laws, regulations, causes of action, policies, and practices (collectively, State laws) burdening the identification, […]
As expected, a newly sworn-in President Donald Trump spent the afternoon following his inauguration signing executive orders (EOs), many of them intended to unwind climate and environmental initiatives enacted by former President Joe Biden. In the EOs, President Trump orders federal agencies and personnel to take certain actions – or […]
As climate advocates prepare for a second Trump administration, the potential threat of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) looms large. The CRA, which allows Congress to void certain rules issued recently by executive agencies, saw unprecedented activity during the first Trump administration and is expected to be similarly invoked in […]
We know now that Donald Trump will take office as the United States’ 47th president this January, and that his stated desires for federal climate policy include withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, easing restrictions on oil drilling, and “rescind[ing] all unspent” Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds. For climate-forward cities, the […]