AG Lecturer on Law Jim Tierney Quoted in USA Today

Lecturer on Law Jim Tierney was quoted in a USA Today article highlighting that President Trump has faced more challenges from states in the first two years of his presidency than Presidents Obama and George W. Bush in their 8 years. Democratic attorneys have been filing more often. They say the multitude of legal challenges is because of Trump’s “dismissal of the rule of law.”

One reason, said former Maine Attorney General James Tierney, stems from a Supreme Court decision in 2007 siding with Massachusetts and 11 other states against the EPA. The states successfully argued that the EPA is required to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants. The court gave states “special solicitude” – or the authority to challenge the federal government in a way that cities, activist groups and others can’t, said Tierney, a lecturer at Harvard Law School.

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Tierney said Trump made himself especially vulnerable to challenges early on because he was in a hurry to get things done so he made administrative law mistakes. The classic example of that is Trump’s travel ban, which courts rejected twice before letting the third version stand.

Tierney said the administration is making fewer mistakes that could lead to losses on procedural grounds, but he suspects there could be an increase in investigations of Trump by attorneys general.

Read the full article.