[3] In February 2017, Public Citizen, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Communications Workers of America filed a lawsuit seeking to block implementation of the Executive Order 13771.

[6][7] In December 2019, U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss dismissed the case, concluding that plaintiffs lacked standing.

The court found that "it is certainly plausible, and perhaps likely" that the executive order and accompanying OMB guidance "have delayed or derailed at least some regulatory actions that, if adopted, would materially benefit Plaintiffs or some of their members.

"[8][9] However, the court found that this was insufficient to establish standing, since "it is hard to say with the requisite degree of confidence which actions those are, what would have occurred in the absence of the Executive Order, how any identifiable individual (or entity) is harmed, and whether any such harm—or risk of harm—is sufficient to establish standing," because the administration did not identify "whether and when a proposed ... regulatory action [has been] delayed or abandoned due to the requirements of the Executive Order.

[10] Former Obama-era Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection[11] and Public Citizen Litigation Group lawyer David Vladeck called the executive order "unconstitutional, illegal and stupid," saying "if you really want to reduce the regulatory load, you can't use a shotgun, you have to use a scalpel.