On March 9, 2026, Kaplan Kirsch filed an amicus brief on behalf of U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in federal district court in the District of Columbia in a challenge to President Trump’s en masse exemption of 50 facilities from emissions standards designed to protect Americans from dangerous air pollutants. Community, health, and environmental organizations filed the case, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Service v. Trump. The action challenged here was part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration, in which the President relied on the same purported authority and used nearly identical language to exempt over 180 sources from dozens of health protections requirements established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Section 7412 of the Clean Air Act. 

Kaplan Kirsch filed the amicus brief on behalf of Senator Whitehouse, the Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the Clean Air Act. The brief explains that the Act allows the President to issue exemptions only after he has made certain mandatory determinations. Rather than make the determinations as specified by Congress, however, the President issued unsupported blanket exemptions  thereby exceeding  his authority. The brief further explains that Article III courts have the power and duty to review whether the President exceeded the scope of congressionally granted authority, both to protect legislative intent and to guard against executive overreach.

If you have questions or wish to discuss the brief, please contact Caitlin McCusker, Sarah Berman, Paul Caintic, Subash Iyer, or Eric Pilsk. 

Some press coverage can be found here.