Executive Summary

The untold story of Trump’s administration’s environmental agenda is that it’s losing.

While the Trump administration continues to spit out dangerous environmental rollbacks at a record clip and its efforts remain a dire threat to our environment, the administration is overwhelmingly failing when its proposed rollbacks come in contact with the rule of law.

No organization during Trump’s presidency has filed more lawsuits to protect the environment from deregulatory actions than Earthjustice.

Of 120 lawsuits Earthjustice filed in the first two years of the administration to defend health and environmental protections against the Trump administration’s attacks, there have been major decisions on 17 of them. Trump has won only one of these battles. Earthjustice has won 16. Earthjustice has won 94 percent of the legal challenges that have resulted in a major decision, while the Trump administration has won only 6 percent.

Number of Rulings in favor of Trump administration 1 16 Number of Rulings in favor of Earthjustice and our clients

Earthjustice’s review of Trump’s record concurs with a recent study from the Brookings Institution which looked across federal agencies and found that Trump’s deregulatory actions have an abysmally low win rate.

Brookings found that the Trump administration has only a 5 percent success rate when challenged in court, far lower than the average 69 percent success rate of previous presidential administrations. Earthjustice filed legal challenges to the majority of the rollbacks and delays on the environment that Brookings tracked.

69% Previous administrations Rate of success in defending deregulatory actions against legal challenges (1982–2004) Trump administration Rate of success in defending deregulatory actions against legal challenges (2016–2018) 5% Source: Brookings Institution, Virginia Law Review

In one court decision after another, federal courts have blocked the administration’s attempts to reverse existing regulations because it failed to meet federal statutory requirements such as scientific and cost-benefit analysis. In addition, courts have ruled that the government cannot undo regulations without the transparency and accountability that are required by federal law.

This report provides a summary of four key federal environmental challenges, including wins, in cases filed by Earthjustice on behalf of environmental, community, labor, health, and civil rights groups to defend life-saving health and environmental protections from Trump’s deregulatory actions.

Our wins prove that facts still matter in court. We are taking every opportunity to hold the Trump administration accountable to the rule of law — and it’s working.