History is on California's Side in Emissions Imbroglio With Trump

President Donald Trump declared the federal government is done with five decades of letting California police its own air quality.

But it’s judges who will have the last word. Some law professors doubt Trump can defend canceling a program that allows the most-populous American state to set tougher automotive greenhouse emissions standards than those of the U.S. government.

California, home of seven of the 10 U.S. cities with the worst air quality, has enjoyed special federal dispensation to regulate air pollution for about 50 years and that authority has been repeatedly reaffirmed by Congress, according to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. More than a dozen U.S. states voluntarily agreed to match California’s heightened emissions control requirements.

“Two courts have already upheld California’s emissions standards, rejecting the argument the Trump administration resurrects to justify its misguided preemption rule,” Becerra said in a statement Friday announcing a lawsuit against the administration in Washington federal court.

Asked how the Supreme Court might one day view the dispute, Dotson he was hesitant to to make a prediction. Still, he added, “no matter whether you’re a justice that considers yourself a textualist or someone who cares more about legislative history, the facts here do not support what the administration is trying to do.”