Region: National
What Did We Know and When Did We Know It?
Nothing about Trump’s environmental policies has been a surprise. He won anyway.
One thing you can say about Donald Trump is that he didn’t hide the ball. He told us exactly what he would do about the environment. Many people who say they care about climate change or the environment apparently didn’t care enough to come to the polls and vote for his opponent. People who liked …
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CONTINUE READINGConstitutional Rights in a Pandemic
When does public health override individual rights?
Lockdowns and social distancing impinge on activities that are protected by the Constitution. That’s been true in many states of church services and in some states of abortion. When the cases have come before they courts, they have often turned to a 1905 Supreme Court case decision, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which upheld a state law …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat was Trump’s Role in Premature Reopening?
Yes, he was at fault, but it’s complicated.
In a column about a week ago, Paul Krugman pointed to the dire consequences of the reopenings in the Sunbelt and laid the blame entirely on Trump. He viewed it as “case of Republican governors following Trump’s lead.” The “main driving force,” he said, was Trump’s reelection strategy. There’s some truth to that, but it’s …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Kudlow Inversion
Trump’s key advisor on the economy, the coronavirus, and regulation, with a gift for getting everything wrong.
“Only the best people,” Trump said. Let’s talk about his chief economic advisor, Larry Kudlow. Kudlow seems to live in an inverted, upside-down world. He somehow manages to be wrong about everything — wrong about the economy, wrong about deregulation, wrong about climate change, wrong about the coronavirus. A full sweep, in other words. It’s …
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CONTINUE READINGMembers of Congress Oppose Trump Administration’s Attempt to Revoke California’s Clean Car Standards
UCLA Law’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic files a brief on behalf of 147 members of Congress in the D.C. Circuit
California has long led the fight against pollution from passenger vehicles, setting its first car emissions standards in 1966 before federal rules were established. After the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, California retained authority to establish a series of more stringent vehicle emissions rules—with the most recent iteration of greenhouse gas emissions standards …
CONTINUE READINGYes, It’s That Time of Year Again
If you read Legal Planet, you know why the work we do matters.
Like everyone else, I’m sure you find fundraising appeals annoying. That’s why we only do them twice a year. But there couldn’t be a more important time for the work we do, given the urgency of the climate crisis and the ongoing policy disaster in D.C. Yes, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and …
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CONTINUE READINGFighting to Preserve California Vehicle Emission Standards
Ted Lamm and Sean Hecht Co-Author Amicus Brief on Behalf of National Parks Groups
Last week, Sean Hecht and I filed an amicus brief with the DC Circuit in the legal challenge to the Trump Administration’s attempt to eliminate California’s authority to apply its own automobile emission standards under the Clean Air Act. (We filed the brief in our individual capacities and not on behalf of our respective institutions.) …
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CONTINUE READINGJuly Fourth at Mt. Rushmore: What about the “unalienable rights” of the Lakota?
In the limbo game of the 45th presidency: no matter how far the bar descends, Trump clears it by going under. Just two weeks after political furor over a planned Juneteenth support rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma—site of the 1921 Race Massacre, in which white mobs killed up to 300 Black people in 48 hours, and …
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CONTINUE READINGD.C. and Puerto Rico are not the same.
Blanket calls for D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood miss a critical difference: D.C. is the American capital. Puerto Rico is an American colony.
“D.C. and Puerto Rico should be states. Pass it on.” With passage of the D.C. statehood bill in the House of Representatives last Friday, variations on this statement have been gaining traction as a liberal rallying cry. Because they are not states, neither D.C. nor Puerto Rico have voting representation in Congress. The votes of …
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CONTINUE READINGDespite Trump
Climate action outside DC is far broader and deeper than when he took office.
Trump remains a grave threat to climate action and to the planet at large. But there actually has been significant progress on climate policy despite him. Not so much in DC, of course. But outside the Beltway, climate policy has widened and deepened. At the state level, there has been a barrage of climate activity. …
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