PODCAST: Court Limits EPA’s Ability to Delay Clean Air Act Regulation Without Rulemaking — C&M's Trump: The First Year Series
Client Alert | 1 min read | 07.06.17
In the latest podcast for Crowell & Moring’s “Trump: The First Year” series, Dan Wolff and Tom Lorenzen, both litigation partners in the firm’s Environment & Natural Resources Group and Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice, discuss the implications of a July 3 D.C. Circuit ruling invalidating EPA's 90-day administrative stay of the current oil and gas methane rule.
Discussed in this 21-minute podcast:
- An overview of the Clean Air Council v. Pruitt decision.
- The possible impacts of this decision on the administration’s stated goal of "deconstructing the administrative state."
- Other possible mechanisms for halting rules in the short term without going through notice-and-comment rulemaking.
- The practical implications of this ruling, and key takeaways for businesses.
Click below to listen or access from one of these links:
PodBean | SoundCloud | iTunes
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
