There is the USATF Rule Book, which has a formal process for going through changes and such and is what the officials are using.
Then there are the Criteria for a Legal Meet, which many people here are referencing:
^^ These are not _rules_ and are not in the rule book. This is an evolution of an internal document that they finally started publishing after numerous issues with marks in 2012. These were written by Duffy, I'm sure with the approval of Ed and Sue (M & W T&F Chairs).
I don't remember if it is in the rule book or bylaws, but I'm pretty sure we have something in writing that authorizes the event chairs to set additional criteria for qualifying.
There is a long history of people setting up questionable meets to try and qualify for USAs/Trials. Like let's have a shot put competition... you didn't get your mark? We'll hold a separate division of the competition and you can try again. Or a local Junior Olympic Meet letting a random Open athlete compete in a separate division at their meet. Etc.. etc...
The issue with curbs is that there is conflicting info about whether or not curbs are required for Olympic Trials qualifying. The meet criteria says facilities have to be legal per USATF and/or IAAF rules. As posted upthread, the rulebook seems to indicate there are circumstances in which non-curbed tracks are legal.
If the National Office wants all marks to be on curbed tracks, they need to spell that out in the criteria above. That would mean no one could qualify for anything at the UW indoor meets...