On April 9, 2025, President Trump issued a presidential memorandum (the order) directing the heads of all Federal agencies to identify unlawful or potentially unlawful regulations that clearly exceed the agency’s statutory authority or are otherwise unlawful and to take steps to repeal those regulations, or unlawful portions thereof. The order instructs agencies to prioritize regulations in conflict with recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that, according to the order, “recognize appropriate constitutional boundaries on the power of unelected bureaucrats and that restore checks on unlawful agency actions.” U.S. Supreme Court decisions cited in the order include Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, in which the Court overruled the broad deference courts afforded to an agency interpretation of a statute administered by that agency, as established in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., and SEC v. Jarkesy, in which the Court held that a defendant facing civil penalties in a securities fraud claim brought by the SEC has a right to a jury trial in a Federal court.
The order directs agency heads to repeal the identified unlawful regulations without public notice and comment, where doing so is consistent with the “good cause” exception under the Administration Procedures Act. The order builds on a prior executive action issued on February 19, 2025, as summarized here, implementing a deregulatory initiative within the executive branch to focus resources on “regulations squarely authorized by constitutional Federal statutes.”
The order is available here.
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