Whether a president can change federal regulations established through government agency rule-making procedures was debated in a Honolulu courtroom Tuesday as a potential linchpin of a lawsuit over commercial fishing in a Pacific marine monument.

A U.S. Department of Justice attorney from Washington, D.C., could not cite legal precedent or other authority for such power, though a U.S. District Court judge hearing the case did not make an immediate ruling.

The case pertains to an April 17 proclamation from President Donald Trump allowing fishing by U.S.-flagged vessels in parts of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument south and west of Hawaii.

Shortly after the proclamation and an April 25 U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service letter to all commercial fishing permit hold

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