(WASHINGTON, DC) – Federal agencies do not have authority Congress doesn’t grant them.
That’s the ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, dismissing a case involving the Federal Highway Administration’s adoption of a rule that required state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to measure greenhouse gas emissions on the highway system. The final rule was adopted in November 2023.
What followed was litigation challenging the regulation, with attorneys general from 21 states, including North Dakota, signing on the suit.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky found the rule illegal, but the Biden FHWA appealed the decision to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This is really big news, and this dismissal reinforces the fundamental principle: federal agencies do not have authority Congress doesn’t grant them,” said Cramer. “The Biden Federal Highway Administration tried to pull a regulation out of thin air to pursue its radical, crazy, bizarro climate agenda, deliberately ignoring the legal boundaries of the law and our Constitution. States and my colleagues in Congress were right to push back against this unlawful mandate. I’m really grateful the Trump administration changed course and for the Court’s requisite dismissal.”
