The importance of being litigious

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The importance of being litigious

Lawsuits matter — even when they might not "win." Also: Explaining SCOTUS's Friday evening ruling about the Office of Special Counsel. And: Other SCOTUS decisions.

CHRIS GEIDNER
FEB 22, 2025

The reality of litigation challenging the Trump administration is that it isn’t all going to win. … That’s OK. … Forcing the administration to defend its actions, on the record and in public, is important.

The mere fact of litigating can change implementation of policy to improve its application to those affected. Even a loss can advance awareness about oppressive steps being taken by the administration. And, multiple strategies might be taken to challenge certain actions, some of which will be more successful than others.

From a litigation perspective, in other words, not suing is sometimes “obeying in advance.” Actions need to be challenged. If a key aspect of what President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and others are doing right now is seeing what they can get away with — and what they can convince people that they can do — then a key part of pushing back against that needs to be challenging everything that can be challenged.

In short: Force them to work for it.

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