Tracking Trump in Court: The Scope of Executive Power Tested

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on the H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers has drawn a rare challenger: the US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business organization that has rarely challenged his administration.

A lawsuit in favor of business interests isn’t surprising from the Chamber, which has its own litigation arm. But it’s the first time the group, historically considered a Republican ally, has chosen to sue the administration during Trump’s second term. The Chamber declined to comment.

Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s chief policy officer, writing the same day the Chamber filed suit, complimented Trump’s work on immigration, but said more legal immigration is needed to boost the economy. He said that the $100,000 H-1B visa filing fee “moves us in the wrong direction by making it cost prohibitive for many businesses, especially small business and start-ups, to utilize the program.”

The Washington federal trial court has been the most popular venue for lawsuits challenging the second Trump administration. As of Oct. 22, at least 92 lawsuits had been filed there challenging the use of Trump’s executive authority, including the H-1B lawsuit from the Chamber.

The Chamber sued the Biden administration mostly outside of Washington. Paul Gugliuzza, a University of Texas at Austin law professor who’s studied judge shopping, said the moves made by the Chamber and other groups to get challenges before conservative judges outside of Washington is what makes their decision to file in DC notable.

“We’re only having this conversation because the system has been abused in such a way that the normal case looks exceptional,” Gugliuzza said. “And I would say this is a very normal choice of forum.”

The Chamber argues that imposing the fee exceeded the president’s authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Filing in DC means the Chamber’s case will be heard in a circuit with the most expertise in interpreting the APA, said Angelo Paparelli, an immigration attorney and partner at Vialto US.

“I suspect that was among the reasons it was done there,” he said.

Read More on the Chamber’s lawsuit here.

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Updates with new story on the Supreme Court's recent grants of emergency relief for the Trump administration.