An 'obscure' law keeps blowing up in Trump's face: analysis

President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk's efforts to unilaterally overhaul the federal bureaucracy have faced a number of legal setbacks and NBC News Supreme Court reporter Lawrence Hurley has identified what he believes is the exact reason why.

In his latest piece, Hurley pinpoints the Administrative Procedure Act, which was adopted all the way back in 1946, as a consistent roadblock to all of Trump's schemes.

Hurley describes this particular law as "obscure" and "wonky," but he notes that it has been cited repeatedly and successfully by plaintiffs seeking to block Trump's executive orders.

"Known in abbreviated form as the APA, the law allows judges to throw out federal agency actions that are 'arbitrary and capricious' on various grounds, including failing to articulate why the agencies are changing policy," he explains.

Hurley then lists multiple examples of the APA being used to thwart the Trump administration.

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"One example of plaintiffs’ citing the law is a case about Trump’s effort to reduce biomedical research funding, which a coalition of states said 'violates the Administrative Procedure Act in multiple ways,'" he writes. "It fails to 'articulate the basis' for the change and shows 'disregard for the factual findings' that set the current rate. A judge blocked the policy Monday. On Tuesday, a judge cited the APA in finding that the administration most likely violated the law in removing webpages featuring medical data that health care professionals rely on."

Jonathan Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, tells Hurley that Trump's team has been "sloppy" so far, although he adds that there's still time for the administration to correct its mistakes before cases inevitably head toward the United States Supreme Court.