Food & Water Watch Legal Director Tarah Heinzen joins allies to break down the role of the courts and litigation in countering Trump’s dangerous deregulatory agenda.

During the first Trump administration, litigation was an essential tool in combating its rollbacks of environmental protections. Now, Trump 2.0 has unleashed an unprecedented attack on decades-old environmental laws and even the rule of law itself. This threatens to leave us more vulnerable to pollution and other health threats, while paving the way for corporations to run roughshod over our shared resources.

Nevertheless, the courts are still one of our best defenses. Since inauguration day, our legal team, Food & Water Justice, has worked tirelessly to combat the Trump administration through the courts. And we’re not working alone.

Over the years, Food & Water Justice has joined a broad network of fellow lawyers, grassroots groups, and everyday people to protect our food, water, and climate. These connections are more important than ever as we take on the Trump administration’s illegal rollbacks.

At our June Livable Future LIVE event, we sat down with Tarah Heinzen (Food & Water Watch Legal Director), Jen Duggan (Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project), and Phoebe Seaton (Co-Director and Attorney of Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability).

Together, they discussed what we expect from this administration and how we’re fighting back. Here are some key takeaways from the event:

What Legal Environment Are We Facing in the Second Trump Administration?

Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks Have Been Fast, Messy, and Illegal

The first months of the Trump administration have been marked by a flurry of rollbacks of vital protections for our communities and environment. And his quick, sweeping work has been made possible in great part due to illegal procedural shortcuts.

For example, Jen told us, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued Clean Air Act exemptions for coal plants to give them more leeway to pollute. Such exemptions legally require detailed fact-finding and decision-making; instead, Trump pushed them through with “a rushed executive order that could have been written in crayon.”

While alarming, this presents an opportunity for us, as we know many of these actions won’t hold up in court.

Trump is Commanding Non-Enforcement as De Facto Deregulation

At the same time, Trump has directed agencies to stop enforcing protections on the books — “Basically telling agencies to act like the rollbacks they want to accomplish have already happened,” Tarah explained.

The Environmental Integrity Project is tracking the actions the EPA takes to enforce our environmental laws. It found that in these first few months, the second Trump administration has taken far fewer enforcement actions compared to Biden and even Trump’s first administration in the same time period.

Stopping enforcement is a blatant handout to many polluters, including the fossil fuel industry. For example, Trump directed the EPA to stop taking enforcement actions that would shut down any stage of energy production (“absent an imminent threat to public health”).

Trump Is Attacking the Foundation of Government Protections

“Scientific integrity is absolutely critical in all aspects of environmental decision making,” Jen told us. A major part of agencies’ work is studying threats, like different kinds of pollution and toxic chemicals, and finding the best way to prevent them. This is the foundation of creating and passing protections.

By defunding and de-staffing government agencies, Trump is attacking our ability to adopt science-backed protections in the first place. Moreover, these cuts will trickle down to states, which receive much funding and technical expertise directly from the EPA.

We’re Pursuing Relentless Litigation

The three panelists emphasized that many judges know what Trump is doing is egregious and illegal. But judges can only take action on things that are brought to them.

As Phoebe said, “Litigation has to play a role. We don’t have a choice.” Keeping up a steadfast barrage of legal actions against the Trump administration will be key to stopping its worst moves.

Especially important are citizen suits. Many of our environmental laws are written so that if an agency fails to take enforcement action to stop violators, everyday people can sue polluters to hold them accountable.

Such legal action is a vital avenue to bring power back to the hands of the people, hold this administration accountable, and slow and stop its attacks on our environment.

We’re Pushing States and Localities to Stand With Us

Trump poses imminent threats to our food, water, and climate, and our state and local leaders must step up and stand with us against him. “Now more than ever, in California and in other progressive states, the states really need to be the safeguard and the forefront, protecting the environment, protecting people,” said Phoebe.

For example, Leadership Council and Food & Water Watch are part of a coalition lawsuit to force California state officials to stop giveaways to dirty energy companies. The state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard treats dirty “biogas” made from factory farm waste as clean energy, and provides lucrative incentives to expand factory farms across the country. This will worsen pollution in communities near factory farms and lead to more climate pollution as well.

“The state has taken a position that its wants to be the leader of the resistance and the leader on climate change, and the leader of environmental justice,” said Phoebe. “All we’re asking is that actions fall in line with the rhetoric.”

We’re Standing With Impacted Communities

Trump is attacking environmental justice and rolling back programs that help bring safe water and clean air to marginalized communities. Many of these same communities are also targets of Trump’s cruel and racist immigration policies, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ramped up family separations and deportations from coast to coast.

Leadership Council and its partners know this all too well. Based in California’s San Joaquin and Coachella Valleys, two of the state’s major agricultural regions, Leadership Council works with many farmworker communities that have been directly harmed by ICE raids.

It’s focusing more than ever on supporting these partners, while navigating a new terrain where many face growing threats to their livelihoods and families. At this time, it’s crucial that we stand with communities under attack and platform their voices as safely as we can.

We’re Gathering Even More People Power

Besides the courts, Tarah said, “I think the people are our other strongest line of defense, and will help keep the courts strong and independent in this time.”

Right now, we need to protest in the streets and demand that our elected leaders stand up for us. We can call on our Senators to block unqualified judicial nominees and speak up for independent courts and judges against Trump’s attacks.

The point of his onslaught of dangerous actions is to make us feel powerless. But nothing is further from the truth. When we come together, we can protect our communities.

In fact, we just learned of a major legal victory:

Environmental Integrity Project, on behalf of Food & Water Watch and several allies, took the EPA to court for its illegal and decades-long failure to update water pollution standards for the petrochemical industry.

A judge ruled that the agency must finally update these standards, which will force many companies to clean up their act. Beyond the petrochemical industry, this win will have implications for other industrial polluters as well.

While the stakes are high and Trump’s actions are unprecedented, we know that we can make a huge difference. With concerted, strategic, and diligent legal efforts, working hand-in-hand with organizing people power, we are still making real improvements in people’s lives and opposing Trump’s illegal agenda.

Watch the Full Event to Learn More About:

Food & Water Watch’s winning legal strategy to protect communities against polluting factory farms;

The power and importance of the Freedom of Information Act in recording the abuses of the Trump administration;

The administration’s threats to the rule of law and attacks on the judiciary;

The Trump administration’s shortcuts and rollbacks, and the weaknesses that open them up to legal challenges;

And more!

Resources Shared at the Event