President Donald Trump's plan to eliminate many of his predecessor's policies and regulations has stalled in federal court, NBC News reports.
In the past few weeks, federal judges have blocked the Trump administration's push to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, delay a rule that would allow low-income families access to housing in high-income neighborhoods and a regulation limiting methane releases by oil and gas companies.
The courts argue that the administration failed to follow proper procedure in enacting the proposed changes, citing the Administrative Procedure Act which requires that the government give the public the opportunity to review new regulations or alterations to existing rules.
"One reason that advocates turn to the Administrative Procedure Act is that when the violations are clear, it seems like a pretty easy way to overturn actions, without having to involve policy," Gillian Metzger, a professor at Columbia Law School, told NBC.
"It is much easier to challenge an action by identifying a procedural problem than it is to try and convince a reviewing court that it's bad policy," said Jonathan Adler, who heads the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Reserve University. "If you oppose what an administration is doing, the smart way to attack it in court is to look for the procedural irregularities."
"The Trump administration doesn't have the right to circumvent the law, and to try to arbitrarily change it," added California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who worked to delay the administration's push to end DACA and the methane rule.
"It seems to be a pattern by the president and his administration to try to act outside the law," he said.
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