Posted on 02/12/2025 10:51:15 AM PST by aquila48
WASHINGTON — Lawyers challenging President Donald Trump's aggressive use of executive power in the courts are turning to a familiar weapon in their armory: an obscure but routinely invoked federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act.
While lawsuits challenging such provocative plans as ending birthright citizenship and dismantling federal agencies raise weighty constitutional issues, they also claim Trump failed to follow the correct procedures as required under the wonky 1946 statute.
Trump fell afoul of the law in some high-profile cases that reached the Supreme Court during his first term, raising the possibility he could suffer the same fate this time around.
Known in abbreviated form as the APA, the law allows judges to throw out federal agency actions that are "arbitrary and capricious" on various grounds, including failing to articulate why the agencies are changing policy.
Much to the anger of Trump and his officials, judges have been issuing a series of orders putting administration plans on hold, including freezes on federal funding and drastic reductions in staffing. The rulings are at a preliminary stage and often do not include detailed legal reasoning.
In fact, one of Trump's first losses in court in his second term — over an Office of Management and Budget memo ordering across-the-board funding freezes — was based in part on a claim brought under the APA. The administration quickly rescinded the memo, although litigation continues.
"What we're seeing from the Trump administration is they are moving so fast, and they're trying to do so much with so little reasoning, and they're trying to disrupt as much as possible, as fast as possible, that these actions are inherently arbitrary and capricious" under the APA, a lawyer involved in one of the lawsuits said.
One example of plaintiffs’ citing the law is a case about Trump’s....
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Metaphorically speaking, what can be done to put a stake in the heart of these activist judges?
How is he losing in court? Judges just rule without any proceedings.
“The administration quickly rescinded the memo, although litigation continues.”
Old story—things move fast these days—that judge already reversed himself and allowed the spending freeze to continue.
(Of course stories about the judge’s conflict of interest floating around X may have gotten his attention...lol.)
Impeachment with the full body cavity search investigation that is a part of the process—should do the trick.
Almost all of them have conflicts of interest in these cases.
Is it an agency action?
Or is it the policy of the Chief Executive?
The Judicial Branch is not the President's boss.
What law can dictate procedure to the President and not be unconstitutional on its face?
“ they’re trying to do so much with so little reasoning”
There’s reasoning. Good reasoning and reasons.
The alacrity scares them, but all they can do, and they know it, is slow things down a bit.
There are no court losses yet. Just some judges felling trees across the road.
With so little reasoning...
Subjective socialist bs
They’ve found the stealing and waste and grift and are doing something aboutmit quickly
Obscure law OK but these federal judges are NOT in the Constitution.
The APA is not an obscure law. It covers, principally, rule making, the process of proposing, reviewing and finalizing regulations. It has little to do with internal matters within an agency under the discretion of the secretary of the agency.
All I can say is our side (The Americans) have a lot of priddy shiddy lawyers.
Trump is exposing massive criminal corruption and theft of tax payer money at a time when Americans are having their lives destroyed by this corruption.
These are all 80-20 issues and the Democrats are fighting hard to continue the corruption and support the the most unpopular of the 20% positions.
“There are no court losses yet. Just some judges felling trees across the road.”
My wife and I discussed this earlier using the same terms.
Liberal judges are trying to buy a few days or weeks in hopes the deep state can find something to undermine public support for President Trump.
They are right now fabricating the next Russia! Russia! Russia! hoax. Or maybe documentation that Musk at some point smoked an unfiltered cigarette.
Democrats are grasping at paper straws.
Announce a RIF and the reason is simple. It’s bloated, inefficient, and overstaffed.
At the same time announce a hiring freeze where no vacant positions can be filled by lateral transfers from different agencies or departments.
Under this law, the 2020 Census was prohibited from surveying citizenship. If that is the law, then the law is an ass.
The Administrative Procedure Act is not obscure. It is the bedrock of the administrative state. It is taught as a basic course in a lot of law schools and is the lifeblood of how the modern government operates. Trump’s team should not play fast and loose with it. They should craft a very careful case to have the court limit its application and simultaneously advance a legislative strategy to have it overturned as much as practical in this Congress.
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