U.S. Department of the Interior

Rule Changes

Determined the damage was from botched installation

A Washington judge permanently barred federal prosecutors from reviving charges against David Hearn, the former Olympic canoeist accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The ruling, issued Thursday by DC Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman, cites public pressure from President Trump as the reason the case cannot be reopened.

Updated 3 days ago

Rule Changes

Appealing the April injunction while senators say it's still not complying with it

Courts have now ordered the freeze lifted three times: in December, April and August. The standoff drags on anyway — the Justice Department says 110 wind projects still haven't heard from the Pentagon since a judge ordered reviews to resume, and senators accuse Interior of demanding paperwork the courts barred.

Updated 7 days ago

Rule Changes

Defending the monument shrink

Patagonia, five tribal nations, and environmental groups sued September 2 to block Trump's second shrink of Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments. The case is before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. She is weighing whether to reopen a 2017 lawsuit that stalled after Biden restored the monuments.

Updated Sep 6

Rule Changes

Wrote and signed the final plan

Farmers and cities across the Southwest just learned how much less river water they will get. On August 22, the US Department of the Interior signed rules cutting Arizona, California and Nevada by about 1.25 million acre-feet a year, roughly 21% of their Colorado River supply. Arizona takes the deepest cut.

Updated Aug 23

Rule Changes

Directed and defended the deregulatory reversal and Alaska leasing acceleration

BLM's rollback of the 2024 NPR-A protections isn't new news—but today is when it becomes real. As of December 17, 2025, the rescission is officially in effect, wiping out the Biden-era rule that tried to hardwire stronger guardrails into how the Western Arctic gets developed.

Updated May 15

Force in Play

Transferring public lands for use as National Defense Areas

Donald Trump has quietly turned long stretches of the southern border into de facto military bases. Under a new system of National Defense Areas, soldiers can stop migrants, hold them, and help prosecutors charge them as trespassers on military land.

Updated May 11