Environmental Groups Are Suing the Government on More Issues Than They Have Before

National organizations are increasingly filing lawsuits in a judicial system that often favors the president and his team.

Supreme Court

Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Among like-minded advocacy groups, the Center for Biological Diversity has consistently filed the most environmental lawsuits against the federal government over the past decade. The first year of President Donald Trump’s second term still broke records.

The organization has filed 83 such lawsuits since Trump retook office last year, exceeding the pace it set during Trump’s first term, when it sued the government 266 times.

A NOTUS analysis of environmental litigation data collected by Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law shows that the nonprofit is just one of a host of environmental groups that are responding to the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda and funding cuts with full force in the courts.