DOJ targets state laws in latest inquiry
In another effort to further President Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda, the DOJ is seeking public comment on state laws that burden U.S. businesses.
The U.S. Department of Justice, in collaboration with the National Economic Council, wants to identify state laws that burden industry and small businesses and find ways to minimize their effects.
The effort seeks to fulfill President Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda, highlighted in numerous executive orders since the administration took office in 2025. While the Trump administration initially focused on federal-level regulations, the DOJ's latest assessment shifts that focus to state laws.
The DOJ is inviting public comment to identify which state laws burden commerce between states, whether those laws might be pre-empted by existing federal authority and whether there are federal legislative or regulatory means for addressing state laws perceived as burdensome.
Although the DOJ news release specifically mentions state laws on energy and products such as eggs, the broad language of the inquiry leaves room for interpretation, according to Forrester Research analyst Alla Valente.
This is not the first attempt made by the administration and Congress in 2025 to address concerns that state laws are creating administrative burdens for businesses. America's AI Action Plan, for example, released earlier this year by the Trump administration, said that while the federal government won't interfere with states passing AI laws that aren't "unduly restrictive to innovation," it will restrict federal funding to states with burdensome AI regulations. Some members of Congress also sought and failed to pass a 10-year state AI law moratorium in the "One, Big Beautiful Bill."
"This is in direct alignment with the goals set out in the administration," Valente said of the DOJ's inquiry.
DOJ eyes state laws
The DOJ news release cites Trump's April executive order "Protecting American Energy from State Overreach" as an example of how the administration wants to unburden businesses from regulatory hardship. The EO claims, for example, that some U.S. states have enacted ideologically motivated "climate change" energy policies that drive up costs and threaten U.S. energy dominance.
Additionally, the DOJ said "anecdotal evidence" demonstrates how state laws and regulations burden commerce and raise costs in other states, pointing to its lawsuit filed in July against California for laws imposing "costly requirements" on eggs and poultry products.
While the DOJ has taken more targeted approaches, its latest inquiry seeks state laws that "hinder America's economic growth, including those that burden industry and our small businesses."
"This is bigger and broader," Valente said. "They don't mention AI specifically. However, they do go back to this 'significant burden,' and there's no clear definition."
Cobun Zweifel-Keegan, managing director of the IAPP, said the DOJ and National Economic Council's inquiry about burdensome state laws appears to be a "broad effort across a lot of policy areas."
"It has a specific reference to energy policy," Zweifel-Keegan said. "All the other references are to the general executive orders that President Trump signed at the beginning of his term focused on broad policies around deregulation."
Makenzie Holland is a senior news writer covering big tech and federal regulation. Prior to joining Informa TechTarget, she was a general assignment reporter for the Wilmington StarNews and a crime and education reporter at the Wabash Plain Dealer.
