Judge Cites Simpsons Episode In Ruling Against Trump Affecting 14 States

Published On: June 26, 2025

Judge Cites Simpsons Episode In Ruling Against Trump Affecting 14 States

The electric van’s battery is only 20 minutes strong!

President Trump, The Simpsons, and US Judge Tana Lin of the Western District of Washington.

Using a quote from a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, a federal judge dealt President Donald Trump a legal blow by overturning his administration’s funding freeze for electric vehicle infrastructure.

Invoking Homer Simpson’s long-lost farewell to his mother as a pop culture fable for a very real-world issue: range anxiety, Judge Tana Lin granted a preliminary injunction from the bench of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.

The term alludes to the concern that drivers of electric vehicles may run out of power if there isn’t a nearby charging station. In 2021, Congress attempted to solve this issue by establishing the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program. High-speed EV charging stations were to be installed nationwide as part of the scheme.

However, a number of states and proponents of sustainable energy filed a lawsuit after the Trump administration stopped allocating NEVI funds earlier this year. Judge Lin overturned the freeze on Tuesday, June 24, finding that portions of the administration’s delay were illegal and releasing the funding hold.

In a 1995 Simpsons episode, Homer’s long-lost mother’s traveling friends object, saying that their electric vehicle only has twenty minutes of charge remaining, forcing him to cut short their sorrowful farewell! In the first few lines of her choice, Lin wrote.

She mentioned that in order to address this precise concern, Congress established NEVI with the goal of creating a dependable nationwide network of EV charging stations that eliminates range anxiety.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which approved the NEVI program and provided precise guidelines for allocating monies between 2022 and 2026, was referenced in the judge’s decision.

Lin, 58, a Biden appointee who graduated from New York University with a law degree, claimed the administration had no right to halt payments that Congress had already authorized.

The court’s decision has compelled the Department of Transportation to expedite the installation of additional charging stations along major routes by allocating NEVI funds to 14 states.

These states are: