California v. U.S. Department of Transportation

In May 2019, California and the California High-Speed Rail Authority filed an action in federal court challenging the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA’s) termination of almost $1 billion in federal grant funding for the California high-speed rail project. The complaint alleged that the project is “a critical part of California’s long-term strategic planning, not only to address critical transportation needs, but also greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.” The plaintiffs asserted that the termination violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it was contrary to the FRA’s policies, procedures, and regulations, as well as its ordinary practices and was also contrary to statutory requirements, inconsistent with the parties’ course of dealings, not based on examination of relevant data, and precipitated by “President Trump’s overt hostility to California, its challenge to his border wall initiatives, and what he called the ‘green disaster’ high-speed rail project.”