The Trump administration has argued in a legal filing linked to a case involving Elon Musk's xAI that ordinary citizens should not be allowed to enforce US environmental laws, insisting that enforcement should rest solely with the executive branch even if it chooses not to act. This challenges "citizen suit provisions" written into laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, which Congress deliberately included so that individuals and advocacy groups could sue polluters or negligent federal agencies when the government failed to intervene.

These provisions have underpinned more than 2,000 lawsuits since the 1970s and make up the majority of environmental cases, having been used to block dam construction, halt illegal wastewater injection and secure penalties such as $14.2 million from a petrochemical facility. Notable cases include a 2019 settlement in which Formosa Plastics paid $50 million after Texas shrimper Diane Wilson sued over plastic pellet pollution, and a 2025 case in which Styropek USA paid $2.5 million and agreed to install filters after being sued by environmental groups over pellet discharges into a Pennsylvania creek.