Attorney General Alan Wilson wins fight against Biden-era woke policies, government overreach

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced a court victory in fighting government overreach and Biden-era woke policies. The U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota ruling in favor of a 21-state coalition, including South Carolina, stopped a federal agency from making any more regulations and threw out an agency rule that was based on ideology instead of science. 

“This is one of the many examples of woke bureaucrats making rules they didn’t have the authority to make, and with no accountability to the American people,” Attorney General Wilson said. “Now, we’ve gone back to upholding the rule of law.” 

Besides exceeding the agency’s authority, this unlawful rule would have delayed essential construction projects in South Carolina and all states by requiring reevaluation of potential environmental impact of those projects. 

The case challenged a regulation written by the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”), which was itself created by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (“NEPA”). That act requires all federal agencies to analyze what kinds of environmental effects are likely to result from federal action. NEPA set up the CEQ to “make recommendations to the President” and “develop and recommend to the President national policies that foster and promote the improvement of environmental quality.” 

However, CEQ exceeded its authority by going from giving “recommendations to the President” to setting regulations on its own. The Court ruled, “The plain text of the statute does not give CEQ authority to issue binding regulations.” 

U.S. District Judge Daniel M. Traynor concluded his ruling by writing, “The first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one. The truth is that for the past forty years all three branches of government operated under the erroneous assumption that CEQ had authority. But now everyone knows the state of the emperor’s clothing and it is something we cannot unsee." 

Joining South Carolina in the case, led by Iowa and North Dakota, were the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. 

You can read the ruling here.