Left: President Donald Trump participates in a session of the G7 Summit, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kananaskis, Canada. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein). Right: Electric van driver scene from “Mother Simpson’ episode of ‘The Simpsons’ (Disney).
A federal judge in the state of Washington on Tuesday quoted the cartoon TV show “The Simpsons” while blocking the Trump administration from carrying out an “arbitrary and capricious” halt on $5 billion dollars in congressionally appropriated funds meant to promote charging station infrastructure for electric vehicles.
U.S. District Judge Tana Lin wrote that the Trump administration’s reversal of course — and “disregard” of the “mandate” in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed by Congress during Joe Biden’s presidency — was likely an “impermissible” affront to the separation of powers and unlawfully undertaken by the Department of Transportation under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Lin, a Biden appointee, in the opening lines of her preliminary injunction order saw fit to reference “The Simpsons” as a way of explaining the reason Congress passed the law in the first place: addressing the “phenomenon” of “range anxiety.”
In a 1995 episode of “The Simpsons” titled “Mother Simpson,” Homer Simpson says goodbye to his mother, with whom he had just reunited, before she enters a van that is reminiscent of the Mystery Machine in “Scooby-Doo.”
When Homer and his mother embrace, the bespectacled hippie driver of the van gets anxious and leans out of the driver’s side window, saying: “Hurry up, man. This electric van only has 20 minutes of juice left!”
For the judge, this episode spoke to concept of “range anxiety” — in short, the consumer’s reluctance to switch from a gas-powered car to an electric one based on practicality in the face of charging infrastructure uncertainty.
From the ruling:
In a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, Homer must cut short a tearful goodbye with his long-lost mother after her traveling companions protest that their “electric van only has 20 minutes of juice left!” Some 26 years later, Congress sought to address the phenomenon that has come to be known as “range anxiety”: the unease experienced by electric vehicle (“EV”) drivers when they are unsure where the next charging station might be, and whether their car’s battery has sufficient charge to get them there.
The states of Washington, Colorado, California, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin sued the Trump administration for ratcheting up that uncertainty by throwing a wrench into both complex infrastructure plans and, in some cases, construction.
Lin agreed with the states that the Trump administration has disregarded Congress’ command to distribute billions of dollars in National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funds and ran afoul of the Constitution in doing so.
“Because the Court finds that, in effectively suspending the NEVI Formula Program, Defendants have overstepped their Constitutional and statutory authority and have attempted to override the express will of Congress, and for further reasons explained herein, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s motion,” the judge wrote.
“Although range anxiety, EV charging stations, and current DOT leadership’s policy preferences lurk in the background of this case, the bedrock doctrines of separation of powers and agency accountability, as enshrined in Constitution and statute, are indifferent to subject matter and blind to personality,” Lin added later. “When the Executive Branch treads upon the will of the Legislative Branch, and when an administrative agency acts contrary to law, it is the Court” responsibility to remediate the situation and restore the balance of power. Such remediation and restoration are what the Court undertakes herein.”
Lin also took aim at the administration’s argument that there would be not “practical consequences” to the funding halt, calling it “disingenuous.”
“Further, it is disingenuous for Defendants to assert that there are no practical consequences to their actions because, ‘[t]o be sure, there are currently no approved State plans,'” the judge said. “There are, of course, currently no approved State Plans because Defendants revoked the approved State Plans that already existed and had previously been approved. Indeed, Defendants’ arguments here ring hollow.”
At the end of the 66-page ruling, Lin spelled out the scope of her injunction.
“Defendants … are hereby fully enjoined from … suspending or revoking — or maintaining any current suspension or revocation of — previously-approved State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plans” of the plaintiff states, the judge wrote, adding that the plans “shall be restored to the legal status they were” prior to the would-be revocations. She also barred the government from withholding or withdrawing funds for any previously approved program.
Lin judge immediately issued a stay on her order, giving the government until July 1 to appeal. If the Department of Transportation doesn’t appeal by then, it must provide an update within five days thereafter detailing the steps it has taken to comply with her mandate.
