Biden administration still pushing Trump-era legal positions after two years in White House

Two years after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, his administration continues to advance Trump-era legal positions in dozens of court cases, a progressive watchdog group revealed Friday.

Former President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) “consistently made a mockery of the law throughout his four years in power,” the Revolving Door Project (RDP) noted in the latest release of its long-running litigation tracker.

Even though “their laughable reasoning and indefensible positions were struck down at a historic rate, many cases were still waiting for Biden,” RDP wrote. “Two years into Biden’s presidency, an alarming number remain, either in some form of pause or advancing forward with the Biden administration adopting Trump’s position.”

RDP’s litigation tracker, a noncomprehensive database updated Friday to include additional cases and developments, breaks down legal actions across more than a dozen categories. A selection of the Biden administration’s moves follows:

Immigration

• Biden’s DOJ bowed to Republican pressure and pulled out of settlement talks with migrants whose families were separated at the border;
• The Biden administration continues to misuse Title 42 public health authority, first misused by Trump, to turn away asylum-seekers at the border; and
• The Biden administration continued to defend the practice of violating the legal rights of unaccompanied migrant children under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program.

Environment

• Though Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day as president, his Department of Justice defended the Trump-approved Line 3 pipeline in court; and
• The Biden administration urged an appeals court to overturn an offshore fracking ban once backed by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Education

• Biden’s DOJ defended Betsy DeVos and her corrupt Education Department’s actions in court.

Voting Rights

• Biden failed to defend voting rights amid historic assault.

Criminal Justice Reform

• Biden endorsed an expansion of police power.

Social Security

• Biden’s DOJ defended a Social Security provision that deprives Puerto Rico residents of benefits before the Supreme Court.

Executive Power and Immunity

• Biden’s DOJ is defending former President Trump in a defamation lawsuit stemming from a sexual assault accusation; and
• Biden’s DOJ argued to toss out lawsuits against Trump and top officials for violently removing protestors ahead of a photo-op.

Death Penalty

• Biden’s DOJ asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the death sentence in the Boston Marathon bomber case.

International Law/Human Rights

• Biden’s DOJ declined to take a position on whether prisoners at Guantánamo have due process rights.

“Fidelity to Trump-era positions takes many forms,” RDP pointed out. “Biden’s DOJ successfully defended Trump-era warrantless searches of travelers’ phones; in 2022, the public learned that customs officials maintain a huge database of travelers’ copied phone data. The DOJ continued to prosecute an Indigenous woman arrested while praying on sacred grounds disrupted by Trump’s border wall construction. They successfully defended the 17-year allowance Trump’s EPA granted to Montana to fail to meet clean water standards for nutrient pollution.”

“The Biden administration must move quickly to drop, reverse, or settle the cases that Trump left behind,” RDP concluded.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.