washington
CNN
—
Frequent adversaries in the courtroom of Donald Trump’s first administration look back on the early days of his presidency and find that, as outgoing Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson put it, “As we are maneuvering… I remember assembling an airplane. That was especially true of the intense and swift legal battle over the so-called travel ban, a seminal 2017 case that set the course for another four years of legal standoff.
None of the Democratic state attorneys general who first took Trump to court over the controversial policy will still be in office when the president takes office next month. But their successors will not be starting from scratch this time, even in a different legal and political landscape than in President Trump’s first term.
They have been preparing for months, if not years, on what kind of lawsuit they want to file against the Trump 2.0 agenda. They did so because the president-elect and his agents promised a more sophisticated and error-free operation this time around.
Democratic officials and their staff are poring over President Trump’s campaign promises and proposals outlined in Project 2025, a policy handbook compiled by a conservative think tank that was compiled during the first Trump administration. It was written by several veterans of the United States, including current candidates for a second term. .
They are adjusting the legal strategies used against Trump during the first go-around to account for changes in case law since then, while at the same time suggesting that Trump won the election more decisively than he did in 2016. It also acknowledges the political realities that led to this.
“People’s voices have become clearer, and one of my jobs is to understand what’s behind it,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told CNN. “As long as the administration pursues lawful policies, that is their right to pursue lawful policies.”
In some states, the current attorneys general have served in the role since late in Trump’s first presidency, giving them more than experience in what a lawsuit against the Trump administration looks like. The others are succeeding staffers who helped shape the major legal issues of his first term, and the four Democratic attorneys general are the same ones the governor held in the role during the last Trump administration. He will be working for the state.
The plan includes an internal brief listing various litigation options to challenge President Trump’s specific proposals, as well as an analysis of how recent case law should factor into those decisions. There is.
Washington state’s next attorney general, Nick Brown, is examining how important legal principles such as status have changed since the first Trump administration. A day after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta drafts a possible strategy for how the state could challenge the nationwide abortion ban. I asked the staff to do so.
Democrats anticipate a fierce battle over issues such as mass deportation, abortion access, the environment, and consumer protections, among other issues. Compared to Trump’s 2016 campaign, the president-elect and his allies are “a little more specific and predictable,” Bonta said.
“We expect him to be a man of his word,” added Bonta, who was a California congressman during the first Trump administration. “We understand a lot of the places where he broke the law because we went through it once in 1.0.”
During the first Trump administration, the total number of lawsuits filed by states against the federal government reached triple digits, and the court battles turned the officials leading the legal resistance into national stars. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who served as the state’s attorney general in 2017, was on the list of Democratic 2024 vice presidential candidates. The Democratic governors of Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts and, next January, North Carolina and Washington are among the former attorneys general who fought the first Trump administration in court.
They bring knowledge and experience to the governor’s mansion on how to take on Trump in court, and that experience will be beneficial to incumbent attorneys. As governors, they can propose other bills to help secure funding and strengthen the work of the state attorney general.
Installing former Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey as governor in Trump’s second term is “actually extremely important,” current Commonwealth’s Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell told CNN.
Mr. Ferguson, who was elected governor of Washington state, joined his successor Mr. Brown at a post-election press conference last month, and both Democrats said Mr. Trump’s threat of retaliation would not influence their decision to file the lawsuit. President Trump reportedly responded to Washington’s request for wildfire disaster relief in 2020, a request that was ultimately fulfilled during President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
“If people are being harmed, if laws are being violated, we should enforce them without fear of retaliation,” Brown said.
But that doesn’t mean the Democratic attorney general will fight Trump on every issue. They told CNN they likely disagree with many of his policies, but would only sue if the legal situation warrants.
This is a needle they will have to thread as they seek to work with the Trump administration on other issues that have bipartisan support, such as addressing the opioid crisis and bringing antitrust laws against social media companies. That’s a problem. Day-to-day law enforcement also typically requires coordination between state and federal agencies.
“My office has been able to partner with these agencies at the local level, and we want to maintain that relationship no matter who the president is,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul told CNN. ” he said. “I’m not going to rant for the sake of rant.”
But he and other attorneys general stressed that they are prepared to take the president-elect to court if they believe he has violated the law in a way that harms residents of their states.
“To the extent that the administration was given a lot of power here, it was specifically about cost of living,” said Josh Kaul, the Wisconsin attorney general who was elected by President Trump this year. “I don’t think many of the people who voted for the Trump administration did so because they wanted people to be disenfranchised.”
Asked for comment for this story, Trump transition team spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said in a statement: “President Trump will serve all Americans, including those who did not vote for him in the election. ” he said. He will unite the country through success. ”
Changes in the legal situation
The relationships forged between state attorneys general during the first Trump administration continued into the Biden administration, but those cross-state conversations turned to Trump’s possible return several months ago.
As part of that discussion, perhaps you should ask which states have the law, such as expertise on the issue, how the policy uniquely impacts state residents, or where the state is on the Federal Circuit map. They need to understand who is best suited to take the lead in a legal challenge.
The Democratic Attorneys General Association, an organization that had just a few employees at the beginning of President Trump’s first term and now numbers 40, regularly holds Zoom calls and in-person meetings to continue the dialogue. A meeting is being held.
DAGA President Sean Rankin told CNN that discussions about a possible second term for President Trump began in earnest at the organization’s February meeting in Seattle. At a meeting in Philadelphia two weeks after the election, the organization set aside time for the incumbent and incoming Democratic attorneys general to speak to each other privately, without DAGA staff present, with another in-person meeting planned for February. has been done. A few weeks after the inauguration.
One of the questions that attorneys general must face is how recent changes in the law and judiciary affect their legal calculations. The Supreme Court is now more right-leaning than it was at the beginning of President Trump’s first term, with Trump appointing three justices. One of them, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, replaced the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in late 2020.
Meanwhile, lower court judges have been reluctant to take a cue from the high court and issue nationwide injunctions blocking Trump policies nationwide in a single lawsuit.
But on the flip side, a series of Supreme Court decisions during the Biden administration have required courts to scrutinize executive branch actions more closely, including how agencies interpret ambiguous laws. This includes a 2024 decision that overturned the justices’ longstanding respect for the law. Democrats say they will work to ensure these precedents are applied fairly, even though conservatives on the court have criticized how they have weakened federal regulatory power.
“They’ve made their bed and they need to lie there,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong told CNN. “And if there is no respect for the EPA under Lee Zeldin or the Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem, there is no respect.”
Where the biggest legal battles take place is likely to change as well. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which covers the western region of the country and has long been favored by Democrats, is less liberal than it was after the Trump administration appointed 10 judges. are. The 1st Circuit, which covers the northern Northeast, is likely the safest option for Democrats because there are currently no Republican appointees among its active judges following Biden’s judicial reforms.
Amid all these changes, Democrats are quick to bring up the win percentages their office posted during the first Trump administration, and in some states went against his first-term agenda. We win in over 80% of our lawsuits. With courts frequently finding President Trump to have broken the law, the attorney general is confident he will be successful again in legal battles under the second administration, even in a different judicial environment.
“The circuit has changed. The Supreme Court has changed,” new J.C. Attorney General Matthew Platkin told CNN. “But they often support the rule of law, and I expect they will again.”
