How Trump Judges Are Attacking

Clean Air and Clean Water

AFJ Action Campaign is tracking the votes of every senator up for reelection in 2020 on Trump’s worst of the worst judges. Each senator who voted to confirm these judges owns the decisions—these decisions are harming people every day. See how your senator voted for some of the worst of the worst judges here.

In Protecting Air for Waterville v. Ohio, Sixth Circuit judge Joan Larsen prevented environmentalists from challenging permits issued to a company that wanted to build a natural gas pipeline in Ohio and Michigan. The dissent pointed out the decision was “inconsistent with the review procedure Congress created” and with “public safety.”


In National Wildlife Association v. Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Sixth Circuit judges Joan Larsen and Amul Thapar reversed a district court ruling that held that a federal agency must comply with the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act before approving plans by an oil pipeline operator to deal with the serious risks of oil spills.


In National Family Farm Coalition v. EPA, Ninth Circuit judge Ryan D. Nelson upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to register for use a toxic herbicide known as Enlist Duo, even though, as a dissent noted, the agency had failed to consider the adverse impacts of the herbicide on endangered species.


In Environmental Protection Information Center v. Carlson, Ninth Circuit Judge Kenneth Lee argued that the US Forest Service should be allowed to proceed with a project that would allow private logging companies to remove trees in an area near the site of a large forest fire, without assessing the environmental impact of the project.


Although not in the majority, in Guertin v. Michigan, Sixth Circuit judges Amul Thapar, Joan Larsen, John Nalbandian, and Eric Murphy would have held that Flint, Michigan residents Shari Guerten and her daughter, who drank and bathed in lead-tainted water, could not sue state and city officials for exposing them to contaminated water.

 


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