Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump’s Order Barring Wind Energy Projects
A federal judge on Monday invalidated a directive issued by President Donald Trump that had blocked the advancement of wind energy projects nationwide. The order — formally titled the “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects” and commonly referred to as the Wind Memo — was signed on Jan. 20, 2025.
It instructed federal agencies to suspend new or renewed permits, leases, rights-of-way, and other approvals for both onshore and offshore wind developments while the administration reassessed federal wind policy.
U.S. District Judge Patti Saris of the District of Massachusetts, a Clinton appointee, ruled that federal agencies’ implementation of the memo was unlawful, effectively blocking the administration from enforcing its restrictions on wind energy approvals.
Seventeen states, Washington, D.C., and the advocacy group Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY) filed suit challenging the directive, arguing that the order violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
Judge Saris agreed, ruling Monday that the administration’s halt on wind project approvals was “arbitrary and capricious” under the APA. She further concluded that the freeze was “contrary to law,” noting that federal agencies are obligated to process permit applications within a reasonable timeframe.
Saris wrote in her decision that federal agencies had not provided any substantive justification for suspending permit activity other than citing the presidential directive. She also found that the agencies failed to meaningfully evaluate the relevant factors or conduct the necessary analysis before implementing the freeze, falling short of the procedural requirements of federal administrative law.
“This scant administrative record makes clear, and the agency defendants do not meaningfully dispute, that the agency defendants have not ‘reasonably considered the relevant issues and reasonably explained the[ir] decision’ to implement the Wind Order,” Saris wrote in her ruling. She added that the defendants “candidly concede that the sole factor they considered in deciding to stop issuing permits was the president’s direction to do so.”
Her ruling entirely vacated the memo, ending the nationwide freeze.
“Under Joe Biden’s Green New Scam, offshore wind projects were given unfair, preferential treatment while the rest of the energy industry was hindered by burdensome regulations,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“President Trump’s day one executive order instructed agencies to review leases and permitting practices for wind projects with consideration for our country’s growing demands for reliable energy, effects on energy costs for American families, the importance of marine life and the fishing industry, and the impacts on ocean currents and wind patterns,” he added.
“President Trump has ended Joe Biden’s war on American energy and unleashed America’s energy dominance to protect our economic and national security,” he said.
It’s not clear how a federal judge can vacate President Trump’s order ending wind projects, but then-President Biden was allowed to issue an executive order ending construction on the XL pipeline, for which billions of dollars had already been spent.
Biden’s candid campaign promise to ‘end fossil fuel production’ in the U.S. seems to embody the very definition of “arbitrary and capricious.”
The Justice Department indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James earlier this year for allegedly engaging in mortgage fraud, and she celebrated the ruling.
“We won our lawsuit and stopped the Trump administration from blocking an array of new wind energy projects. This is a big victory in our fight to keep tackling the climate crisis and protect one of our best sources of clean, reliable, and affordable energy,” James wrote on X.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell also praised Saris’ ruling, saying, “This critical victory also preserves well-paying green jobs and access to reliable, affordable energy that will help Massachusetts meet our clean energy and climate goals.”
On my birthday, my sister smashed the cake straight into my face, laughing as she watched me fall backward, blood mixing with the frosting. Everyone said, “It’s just a joke.” But the next mo
On my birthday, my sister smashed the cake straight into my face, laughing as she watched me fall backward, blood mixing with the frosting. Everyone said, “It’s just a joke.”
But the next morning in the emergency room, the doctor studied my X-ray and immediately called 911—because what he saw… exposed a horrifying truth.
Part One: “It’s Just a Joke”
On my birthday, the room smelled like sugar and candles and cheap champagne. A pink cake sat in the center of the table, my name written across it in looping frosting. Everyone was laughing. Phones were out. Someone shouted for me to make a wish.
My sister stood closest to me.
She grinned, eyes bright with something that wasn’t kindness. Before I could even lean forward, her hands slammed the cake straight into my face.
The impact was harder than anyone expected.
I felt myself stumble backward, my heel catching on the rug. There was a sharp crack as my head hit the edge of the table, then the floor. For a split second, the room spun in white and pink. I tasted sugar—and then iron.
Blood mixed with frosting, dripping down my chin.
People screamed, then laughed nervously.
“Oh my God,” someone said, still chuckling. “It’s just a joke!”
My sister laughed the loudest. “Relax! You’re so dramatic.”
I tried to sit up. Pain exploded behind my eyes. My vision blurred, and the ceiling swayed like it was floating. Someone wiped my face with a napkin, smearing blood across my cheek.
“You’re fine,” my mother said quickly. “Don’t ruin the mood.”
I remember thinking how strange it was that my ears were ringing louder than the music.
I remember the taste of frosting as I swallowed blood.
I remember waking up hours later in my bed, alone, my head throbbing, my phone full of messages telling me not to be “too sensitive.”
By morning, I couldn’t lift my arm.
Part Two: The X-Ray That Changed Everything
The emergency room smelled like disinfectant and sleepless nights. The doctor asked how it happened. I hesitated, then said quietly, “I fell.”
He nodded, unconvinced, and ordered X-rays “just to be safe.”
I lay on the cold table staring at the ceiling, replaying the laughter over and over in my head. It’s just a joke. That sentence hurt almost as much as my skull.
When the doctor returned, he wasn’t smiling.
He stared at the image on the screen for a long time. Too long.
Then he left the room without a word.
Minutes later, he came back—with a nurse, a security officer, and his phone pressed to his ear.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “I need emergency services. Immediately.”
My heart started pounding. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He turned to me, his voice careful. “This isn’t a simple fall.”
He pointed to the X-ray. Even I could see it—fine fractures branching like cracks in glass, not just in my skull, but along my collarbone and ribs. Old fractures. Healed wrong. Layered.
“These injuries happened at different times,” he said gently. “Some weeks apart. Some months.”
I stared at the screen, my mouth dry.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered.
He met my eyes. “This pattern isn’t accidental. And the impact that brought you in today could have killed you.”
The word killed echoed in my ears.
“Who did this to you?” he asked softly.
I thought of my sister’s grin. My parents’ laughter. All the times I’d been shoved, tripped, “joked” into walls. All the times I’d been told I was clumsy. Sensitive. Overreacting.
My hands began to shake.
“I think…” My voice broke. “I think it was never a joke.”
Part Three: When Laughter Turns Into Sirens
The police arrived quietly. Calmly. Like this wasn’t the first time they’d seen something like me.
They didn’t accuse. They asked questions.
Who was there last night?
Who pushed you?
How often do you get hurt?
For the first time, I didn’t minimize. I didn’t protect anyone. I told the truth.
By evening, my phone was exploding.
My mother crying.
My father furious.
My sister screaming that I had “ruined everything.”
“You’re exaggerating!” she yelled over voicemail. “It was cake! Everyone saw it!”
Everyone had seen it.
That was the horrifying truth.
Everyone had seen it—and laughed.
The investigation didn’t take long. Videos surfaced. Old medical records were reviewed. Witnesses contradicted themselves. Patterns became impossible to ignore.
What started as a “birthday prank” became an assault case.
What they called humor was documented as violence.
I was moved to a different room that night, monitored closely, safe for the first time in years. As I lay there, ice wrapped around my head, I realized something terrifying and freeing all at once:
If that cake hadn’t been smashed into my face…
If I hadn’t fallen just right…
The truth might have stayed buried forever.
Sometimes it takes breaking something visible to expose what’s been shattered for years.
