Is Trump's Executive Order Illegal? Groups Sue Administration Over 'Two-For-One' Regulation Action

Three advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration early Wednesday to quash an executive order Trump issued last week, mandating all new federal regulations must have zero cost — a high, if not impossible standard.

The suit, from the Washington progressive nonprofit Public Citizen Inc., the New York environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council Inc. and the union Communications Workers of America, alleges the order “will force agencies to take regulatory actions that harm the people of this nation” and “exceeds the president’s authority under the Constitution.”

“No one thinking sensibly about how to set rules for health, safety, the environment and the economy would ever adopt the Trump executive order approach — unless their only goal was to confer enormous benefits on big business,” Robert Weissman, who heads Public Citizen, said in a press release announcing the legal action. “If implemented, the order would result in lasting damage to our government’s ability to save lives, protect our environment, police Wall Street, keep consumers safe and fight discrimination. By irrationally directing agencies to consider costs but not benefits of new rules, it would fundamentally change our government’s role from one of protecting the public to protecting corporate profits.”

Trump’s order also states that, for each new rule, “at least two prior regulations [must] be identified for elimination,” prompting an outcry from supporters of rules intended to protect the environment from careless business practices. Rhea Suh, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council, railed against the so-called “two-for-one” feature of the order, which she said “violates common sense.”

The lawsuit added to a list of legal battles against Trump’s administration, mostly related to his Jan. 27 action barring citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries and refugees from entering the U.S., which has been challenged in the court by 16 states, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and more than 120 tech companies.