In a development welcomed by environmental and public health advocates, a federal judge on Monday invalidated the Trump administration's last-minute rule change dictating which types of research the Environmental Protection Agency can use to regulate polluting industries and toxic chemicals.

Judge Brian Morris, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, Great Falls, vacated the rule at the request of the Biden administration, overturning one of former President Donald Trump's last actions taken prior to leaving office.

"It took a federal court just days to reject the Trump EPA's obvious lawbreaking," Vijay Limaye, a climate and health scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said in a statement. "This is a major victory for people's health."

"Science matters again," said Limaye, "and it will again guide how to best protect people from dangerous pollution and toxic chemicals."