Advocacy Groups Appeal Dismissal of Case Over Trump’s Cancellation of Environmental Justice Grants

Twenty-three nonprofit environmental justice groups represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center filed notice on Tuesday that they will appeal a U.S. District Court judge’s dismissal of their case seeking to reverse the Trump administration’s decision to cancel the $3 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program in February.

In the District of Columbia, Judge Richard Leon ruled in late August that he could not reinstate the grants, citing two recent Supreme Court decisions that grant terminations by the Trump administration must now be contested in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the venue for contract disputes with the federal government.

“Judge Leon’s decision was on jurisdiction,” said Ben Grillot, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center