White House Urges Agencies to Review and Repeal “Illegal” Regulations Without Comment Period
President Trump issued a new memo to speed up deregulation in the federal government.
The president said that federal agencies must review and repeal “illegal” regulations without the customary notice and comment period, calling that period “unnecessary.” The president cited ten Supreme Court decisions as his rationale for allowing agencies to proceed quickly with the review.
“Agencies must move quickly to delete illegal regulations from imposing further burdens on the American people,” stated a fact sheet.
This comes nearly two months after President Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies to identify regulations for elimination or modification that are unconstitutional or unlawful. The deadline to identify such regulations is April 19.
The regulatory review and repeal process is asked to prioritize regulations whose lawfulness is questioned under the following Supreme Court decisions:
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (2024);
West Virginia v. EPA, 597 U.S. 697 (2022);
SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109 (2024);
Michigan v. EPA, 576 U.S. 743 (2015);
Sackett v. EPA, 598 U.S. 651 (2023);
Ohio v. EPA, 603 U.S. 279 (2024);
Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, 594 U.S. 139 (2021);
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 600 U.S. 181 (2023);
Carson v. Makin, 596 U.S. 767 (2022);
Roman Cath. Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 592 U.S. 14 (2020).
Critics pounced on the decision, particularly the suspension of the notice and comment period.
“The policies and programs that the nation has put in place, and that have served communities for decades, cannot be undone with the arbitrary stroke of a pen,” Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said. Perryman pledged that her organization will “see this administration in court to protect people and democracy.”
It’s also worth noting that the White House appears to claim that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright applies retroactively, although the court held explicitly that the decision is forward-looking.
Loper Bright struck down the Chevron Doctrine which gave agencies primary discretion to interpret certain ambiguous federal laws and regulations rather than the courts.
