Two provisions in Trump's recent Executive Order on the environment contradict everything he tried to accomplish in it.
(d) It further is the policy of the United States that, to the extent permitted by law, all agencies should take appropriate actions to promote clean air and clean water for the American people, while also respecting the proper roles of the Congress and the States concerning these matters in our constitutional republic.
(e) It is also the policy of the United States that necessary and appropriate environmental regulations comply with the law, are of greater benefit than cost, when permissible, achieve environmental improvements for the American people, and are developed through transparent processes that employ the best available peer-reviewed science and economics.
IOW, Trump has logic-bombed himself, as they describe it at TV Tropes, and his head will soon be exploding.
Trump: This policy is non-actionable.
Both of these policies are firmly established in Federal law and Supreme Court decisions, and they do not permit a President* to override them, especially when cited in the same text. So we have to use clean, less expensive renewables rather than coal, and we have to accept the science. The courts will, no matter how Trump blusters. Therefore
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
to borrow a phrase from Bubbanomics.
Or, from Shakespeare,
For 'tis the sport to see the engineer hoist with his own petard.
Petard: a small bomb made of a metal or wooden box filled with gunpowder, used to blast down a door or to make a hole in a wall. Nowadays we would use a rectangular outline of plastic explosive.
Engineer here means one who makes or uses engines of destruction. Hoist means lifted up, of course, but here it is more of a Wile E. Coyote effect, blown up into the air by his own Acme dynamite.
The Muslim Ban Precedent
Several legal teams took Trump at his word that his Muslim bans were just that, and the courts agreed that they were unconstitutional, in part for that reason.
Trump promised a Muslim ban. Various other people in his campaign, his transition, and his administration said it would be a Muslim ban, and were quoted in the courts. The District Court in Seattle and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that both Executive Orders before them were Muslim bans, and ruled them unconstitutional. So did several others.
Kerry Eleveld: After three strikes in the Ninth on Trump's Muslim ban, administration not rushing back to court
The Anti-Environment EO
This case is a bit different, because we can quote what this EO itself says against itself, as at the beginning of this Diary.
He said it himself, and we should simply ask the courts to hold him to it. Every court that it comes before. Rachel Maddow said last week that there are at least 40 steps in the process of implementation of this EO where it could be, and no doubt will be, challenged in court.
Renewables are cheaper than coal, Bozo, even without counting externalities and unwarranted subsidies for fossil fuels. As to science,
We've peer-reviewed Trump's brain.
So?
He doesn't have one.
Oh, yeah? You wanna make a Federal case outta that?
Works for me.
Hey! Those are your facts. That isn't what we are talking about.
Tell it to the Judge.
Pleading, in Part
IANAL, just a logician and linguist. (Well, OK, I'm also a Buddhist priest.) This is an amateur legal effort, using a framework copied from an actual Federal pleading in a gerrymandering case. Professional assistance from real lawyers and environmental experts gladly accepted. The format is meant for Daily Kos readers, and is different from real court pleading style. It is just a bare outline. The real thing would lay out the claims and precedents in great detail.
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE…DISTRICT OF…
WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,
Plaintiffs
v.
DONALD J. TRUMP ET AL.,
Defendants
Now come plaintiffs We the People, represented by their undersigned attorneys, and complain of Defendants Donald J. Trump, not personally but solely in his capacity as President of the United States, and officials of his Administration, not personally but solely in their official capacities, as follows:
- Scott Pruitt, EPA Administrator
- Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State
- Rick "Oops" Perry, Energy Secretary
- Ryan Zinke, Interior Secretary
- Tom Price, HHS Secretary
- [Any others?]
Introduction
1. Plaintiffs seek both
- a declaratory judgment that the Presidential Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth (the Executive Order) violates the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act, and other related Federal laws cited in greater detail below,
- and an order permanently enjoining the implementation of the Executive Order by the President and other Administration officials and staff. As explained in greater detail below, the Executive Order is, by any measure, one of the worst assaults on the environment in American history.
2. The Executive Order violates decisions and orders of the Supreme court as follows:
- Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, in which the Court ruled that the EPA not only can regulate CO2 as a pollutant, but must do so.
- [long list of others]
3. The Executive Order specifically states that it is invalid. [as above]
Relief Requested
WHEREFORE, plaintiffs respectfully request that this court:
- Declare sections [nearly all of them] of the Executive Order to be null and void.
- Enjoin defendants and employees and agents of the US government from administering, preparing for, and in any way carrying out the void provisions of the Executive Order.
- Reaffirm the Federal Court decisions that the Executive Order attempts to overturn.
- Award plaintiffs their reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs, and litigation expenses incurred in bringing this action; and
- Grant such further relief as the Court deems just and proper.
Background
The Executive Order was intended to roll back as many environmental protections in law and regulation as possible.
[Detailed list]
Plaintiffs Attorneys: Dewey, Rockham, and Howe
Sources
More people should read the actual texts, and then point and laugh.
Whitehouse page for EOs
Trump has already signed 38 executive actions — here's what each one does