Trump’s DOJ Attempts to Erode Another Pillar of Citizens’ Involvement in the Regulatory Process
By Steven Reinoehl
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP filed a citizen suit on April 14, 2026 against X.AI Corp (xAI) and its subsidiary, MZX Tech LLC, for illegally operating gas turbines without an air permit in Southaven, Mississippi – creating massive amounts of pollution and significant health risks for residents living in Northern Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee.
These gas turbines are used to power xAI’s “Colossus 2” data center in South Memphis. Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion to intervene and dismiss the case on June 15, 2026, claiming that shutting down xAI’s data center would “threaten American… security by… shut(ting) off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations.”
Beyond this vague assertion of national security, the DOJ goes further by making the claim that “The power to execute federal law… belongs to the Executive Branch,” setting up an attack on citizen suits under the Clean Air Act more broadly. The DOJ is misapplying a provision in citizen suit statutes that gives federal and state governments legal priority over civil suits when “diligently prosecuting” a civil action. The DOJ is attempting to use that provision not to prosecute its own suit, but to prevent courts from hearing citizen suits that the DOJ does not want heard. The DOJ is also arguing that citizen suits are an encroachment on executive power.
Citizen suits are a foundational part of modern environmental law, and exist in important parts of civil rights law. They provide regular people with opportunities to fight for protection from pollution and other harms when the government does not have the resources or political will to do so. If a person can show that a regulation is being violated and is causing harm to them and their community, they can sue to demand enforcement of the regulation.
While xAI and the Trump administration may hide behind extreme and unfounded claims that citizen suits are inconsistent with executive authority, the reality is clear: Trump has refused to enforce pollution laws to shield companies owned by his political donors (Elon Musk donated $250 million to help Donald Trump win the 2024 presidency) at the expense of communities in Memphis and North Mississippi. Once again, this administration makes it clear to corporations that by donating to the Trump machine, they will be given a green light to make profit at the expense of people’s health and safety.
This thinly veiled attack is one of several the Trump administration has taken against public participation in the regulatory process. Using the Supreme Court’s overturning of Chevron as a cover, Trump directed agencies in April 2025 to rely on a broad definition of the “good cause” exemption from the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to repeal regulations he called “facially unlawful” without going through the public notice and comment process. The administration has pressured agencies to skip public participation in notice and comment both with demands for an absurd volume of repeals and with unlawful assertions that agencies can ignore APA standards when the executive orders them to do so.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) disabled the POST Application Programming Interface (API) tool on the Regulations.gov website in August of last year. This important tool was one of the primary ways regular people submitted comments on proposed regulations and had their voices heard.
Both actions either create new obstacles or completely silence the public’s voice in creating regulatory policy. The DOJ’s interference in NAACP’s citizen suit is an attempt to deny individuals the ability to sue polluters that are violating clean-air laws and harming local communities.
The DOJ’s interference for Musk’s xAI doesn’t just shield xAI from accountability for this particular permit violation; it seeks to undermine the more systemic accountability citizen suits provide. Winners of a citizen suit do not receive damages. Rather, if a citizen suit is to win in court, a losing defendant like xAI could be required to pay civil penalties to the U.S. Treasury, face an injunction to stop performing the illegal action it has been sued for, or both. Corporations often view damages as the “cost of doing business,” but citizen suits present a rare opportunity to put a stop to the harms corporations cause.
The DOJ isn’t attacking the public’s legal right to enforce in a vacuum. The recent Supreme Court decision embracing unitary executive theory (by striking down statutory “for-cause” removal protections for Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioners as unconstitutional in Trump v. Slaughter) is yet another effort to empower the President at the expense of Congress. Arguing that citizen suits are also an affront to executive authority is an attempt to further consolidate power within the executive branch.
Public Citizen strongly opposes the DOJ’s attempts to scuttle citizen suits. This attack on a foundational tool by which regular people can enforce their rights is yet another example of Trump’s corruption and willingness to use government to protect anyone who is willing to fund his interests.