The way Louisiana Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry keeps racking up wins, you almost wish he would say “no thanks” to running for governor and attempt to stay on in his present job, especially after posting his biggest W to date.
Several times in his present term Landry, in conjunction with any of another to over a dozen other state attorneys general have won key cases against federal government overreach (as well as picking up some corporate settlements). Last week he and Missouri’s put another notch in their belts by having a federal district court rule that several federal government agencies and officials had to desist collaborating, if not pressuring, social media companies over constitutionally protected speech.
Their lawsuit argues that the federal government overstepped in its efforts to convince social media companies to respond to or deemphasize, if not block, postings containing information about vaccinations for the Wuhan coronavirus or that could affect elections. Evidence continues to mount that agencies and officials coordinated with several social media companies to influence news content or sources that likely affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and suppressed validated information critical about government policy concerning the pandemic.
Yet drawing less national coverage but perhaps having the greatest impact of any challenge to federal government action directly affecting Louisiana, also last week Landry beat back a major and illegitimate expansion of federal power when the Democrat Pres. Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency backed out of an effort to penalize operations of chemical manufacturers on the basis of “environmental racism.” After the Biden Administration assumed office, with much fanfare the EPA announced, among other things, that it would investigate all responsible for actions that allegedly caused the impact of supposed environmental degradation disproportionately to fall on ethnic minority residents as a matter of civil rights violations, questionably arrogating new authority in the name of “environmental justice.”
It followed through last year when the agency went after Louisiana’s Departments of Environmental Quality and Health because they allowed two processors, Denka and a Formosa Plastics subsidiary, to operate. In essence, responding to the demands of special interests the Biden Administration alleged that for racially discriminatory reasons the state allowed the pair to continue supposedly harmful activities.
Even as the activities themselves remain under great dispute as to their impact, where in the case of Denka chloroprene emissions the EPA has used out-of-date and suspect information on which to declare this problematic, the Biden Administration investigated the state to force it to change its permits on this basis at the behest of the special interests, the first time the agency had used Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to do this. Landry’s agency stepped into the breach last month, filing suit arguing that the EPA had delegated its power to special interest groups and asserted other powers not granted to it under law.
Like a bully punched in the nose, only a month later the Biden Administration backed down. Usually, when the EPA receives a complaint, it will resolve these only with the attacked party making some kind of concession. This time, it left with its tail tucked between its legs, hollering as it ran away that it perceived discrimination afoot, but not intentionally.
This turns out to be a huge victory for the people. The much-ballyhooed expansion of EPA action fizzled and demonstrated it had tried to go too far under the law and Constitution to declare that mere outcome, rather than intention, denoted illegal discrimination and permanently attenuated in its ability to assert such powers. Not only did Landry’s office preserve the integrity of Louisiana’s permit issuance in these matters but it also created a national precedent protecting the will of the people and preventing federal government overreach.
So, while some of Landry’s many other actions in collaboration with other states might grab more headlines, his office’s going alone here certainly was most consequential for Louisiana directly and perhaps as much so for the country as a whole. We thank him for that.
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