
One of the cornerstones of administrative law in the United States is the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The APA is a critical piece of legislation that helps regulate the process through which federal agencies create and enforce rules and regulations.The APA plays an important role in a president’s executive orders. A president can set policy by issuing an executive action. This is done by directing a federal agency to execute that policy. For example, an executive order regarding environmental health risks would require the Environmental Protection Agency to carry it out. The APA was enacted in 1946 as a bipartisan measure to review and curb the executive branch’s growing influence. The APA applies to all Cabinet departments, such as the Defense Department, and independent agencies like the Security and Exchange Commission. The APA ensures administrative agencies in the executive branch act within their scope of authority, make decisions transparently, follow established procedures, allow for judicial review of agency decisions, and protect the rights of individuals affected by agency actions. Every president since 1946 has delt with APA challenges to their executive orders. Additionally, the APA plays a significant role in protecting the public’s right to challenge agency actions that may be unjust or exceed statutory authority. If an individual is harmed by an agency’s action, they can file a lawsuit stopping the agency from enforcing it, based on a violation of the standards in the Act. The most common standard of review used to challenge an agencies action is the “arbitrary and capricious” standard. This standard is largely fact-based and situation-specific. It requires an agency to demonstrate engagement in “reasoned decisionmaking” by showing an adequate explanation for its decision. This is done by providing the essential facts which the decision was based on while explaining what justifies the determination with actual evidence beyond a conclusory statement. The majority of lawsuits filed against the current Trump Administration include a violation of the APA. Some of these challenges include:
Executive orders on Immigration related actions on:
o Birthright Citizenship, punishment of sanctuary cities and states, expanding the use of expedited removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to include noncitizens located anywhere in the U.S. who cannot prove they have been continuously present for more than two years?, the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) issuance a stop-work order halting funding for four programs providing legal resources to unrepresented people facing deportation, and the suspension of the US refugee admission program
Executive orders on a temporary pause of grants, loans, and assistance programs.
Executive orders and policy memos on Civil Liberties including:
o The housing of transgender inmates, a passport policy targeting transgender people, immigration enforcement against places of worship and schools, a ban on DEIA initiatives in the executive branch and by contractors, and on the removal of information from HHS websites under the executive order on Gender Ideology Extremism
There have also been APA challenges on orders impacting federal workers. These orders range from a large-scale reduction in force, forced deferred resignation offers, to termination of probationary employees that directs federal agencies to terminate tens of thousands of probationary employees en masse. Importantly, probationary employees are members of the competitive service in their first year of employment or of the excepted service in their first two years of employment and may include long-term federal workers who have recently been employed in a new position or new agency. Additionally, orders that authorize directors to reclassify thousands of members of their civil-service protections which allows them to be fired at will, the removal of independent agency leaders, and the stop work order dismantling the USAID have been challenged using the APA.
Importantly, challenges to the orders does not mean they are completely unenforceable or presumed to be a violate of a law. Instead, the challenges ensure that the actions follow the correct procedure. Currently, the challenges against Trump’s orders vary in results. Some challenges are still waiting to be heard in court, some have been ruled unenforceable temporarily while the judge considers the issue, and others have been dismissed on various grounds. While some of Trump’s executive actions have been blocked temporarily by the federal courts, it is not a final rule. The federal government has avenues to appeal it. Regardless of the outcomes, it is clear the APA haunted Trump during his first term, and is coming back for seconds.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R41546
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-lawsuits-apa-privacy-act-impoundment/
https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/08/g-s1-47098/trump-arbitrary-lawsuits-gender-executive-actions
https://www.wiley-wheeler.com
https://www.wiley-wheeler.com/madeline-garza.html