“Notice and comment is important, but it does require the decision makers have not already made up their minds,” Richard Thompson Ford, professor of law at Stanford Law School, told Law.com, adding, “I would like to believe that that the council sincerely considered the comments,” but feels skeptical based on the majority of commenters asking for the council not to repeal Standard 206.

“I suppose it is possible that the arguments against repeal of Standard 206 just didn’t persuade,” he continued. “I suspect most of the council had already decided that repeal was necessary to mollify the Trump administration and the notice and comment period was an empty formality.”