Trump's executive actions are getting challenged as 'arbitrary.' What does that mean?

Trump's executive actions are getting challenged as 'arbitrary.' Less than three weeks into the new administration, courts are already considering challenges to Trump's declaration that the federal government will only recognize two genders, the Department of Homeland Security's departure from a decades-old policy that encouraged Immigration and Customs Enforcement to avoid places of worship and the "Fork Directive" email offering federal employees the option to resign in exchange for full pay and benefits through September. Concerned with a burgeoning "administrative state" after the New Deal expanded the role of executive agencies, Republicans wanted judges to review and curb the executive branch's growing influence. While plaintiffs could challenge agency actions under standards with a higher bar, it is incredibly common to challenge agency actions as "arbitrary and capricious" because this standard is commonly used to evaluate agencies' rule-making procedures and policy decisions. In 2019, the Supreme Court struck down an attempt by Trump's Department of Commerce to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, because, as Super highlights, Chief Justice John Roberts found the stated reasons for the agency's action "disingenuous."