'Sue and Settle' Is Back Under Biden

Nichols could just as easily have slapped himself on the back: The administration’s move was part of a private settlement of a lawsuit filed by WildEarth and others over the objections of energy consortiums, whose efforts to intervene in the matter were dismissed.

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A similar thing happened last August, when the Biden administration announced it had agreed to exclude 6 million acres of the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico seabed from exploration to settle a lawsuit brought by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club - an announcement that triggered operational delays for the industry and expensive litigation to overturn.

Administration critics say these moves reflect the resurgence of a practice embraced by the Obama administration and rejected during Donald Trump’s presidency: “sue and settle.” The tactic is simple: An advocacy group sues a federal agency for failing to enforce laws or regulations. Agency officials and the plaintiffs then come to a private agreement and that deal is ratified by the courts via a binding consent decree.

Ed Morrissey

This goes on all the time, and it needs to stop. Activists use these lawsuits to put public policy in the hands of judges, and as RCI points out here, often it's done with the cooperation and even encouragement of politicians that want to avoid accountability for such policies. It undermines self-governance by the people through its electoral institutions, and to the extent that the executive branch colludes in it, it's corrupt. 

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