Trump has lost more than 90 percent of deregulation court battles

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Donald Trump participates in a discussion on immigration proposals with conservative leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, January 23, 2019.

President Donald Trump has been hailed as the greatest rule-cutter in modern American history.

But despite his administration’s efforts to pare back federal regulations on business, in cases that have been challenged in court, Trump has fared quite poorly.

More than 90 percent of the Trump administration’s deregulatory efforts have been blocked in court, or withdrawn after a lawsuit, according to a running tally maintained by the Institute for Policy Integrity, a non-partisan think tank sponsored by the New York University School of Law.

In cases involving the environment, immigration, disabled individuals, affordable housing, student loans and other matters, Trump has been blocked from stripping protections guaranteed by previous administrations.

The low success rate is unusual. In a typical administration, the government wins about 69 percent of the time in cases involving challenges to agency action, according to an average of eleven studies on the matter.

But federal courts have largely not signed onto the president’s agenda, handing him a string of defeats in disputes that have largely flown under the radar.

In many cases, courts said the administration’s actions were not justified because it failed to solicit public input before taking an action, or because it took an action that was arbitrary and capricious.