California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta mentioned he and his employees have been reviewing former President Trump’s second-term agenda intimately to organize a possible onslaught of environmental, immigration and civil rights lawsuits within the occasion Trump defeats President Biden.
“We are able to’t be caught flat-footed,” Bonta mentioned in in interview Thursday in Washington. “Thankfully and sadly, now we have 4 years of Trump 1.0. We all know a few of the strikes and priorities; we anticipate them to be totally different.”
Bonta, a Democrat who’s mulling a run for governor, mentioned he has been reviewing the work of his predecessor, Xavier Becerra, who filed greater than 100 fits towards Trump insurance policies earlier than leaving the workplace to turn out to be Biden’s secretary of Well being and Human Companies. Bonta and his deputies are additionally trying intently at a doc drafted by the Heritage Basis, a Trump-aligned suppose tank, referred to as “Undertaking 2025,” that provides a blueprint for Trump’s second-term coverage targets.
California’s slate of Democratic politicians have lengthy seen themselves as a bulwark towards conservative insurance policies, by no means extra so than throughout Trump’s presidency, when the state turned the de facto headquarters of the so-called resistance. The challenges to Trump, whereas standard with many supporters, at instances put Democrats within the awkward place of asserting states’ rights after lengthy advocating for requirements that may apply throughout the nation. Critics mentioned the fixed lawsuits had been politically motivated and distracted from the lawyer normal’s different duties, together with defending shoppers.
The challenges additionally helped Trump politically at instances, because it allowed him to make use of the state as a foil when he failed to hold out a few of his agenda.
With states rising more and more polarized, attorneys normal from each pink and blue states now play high-profile roles in feuding with the federal authorities when it’s run by the alternative political celebration. The Obama administration was sued 58 instances by Republican attorneys normal, in keeping with a tally maintained by Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette College. Since Biden has been in workplace, GOP attorneys normal have filed 55 lawsuits towards his administration’s insurance policies.
The figures symbolize a considerable enhance from prior administrations. And the attorneys have typically gained. Republican attorneys normal beat Obama in court docket 64% of the time, and they’re defeating Biden at a 76% price, in keeping with Nolette. Democratic attorneys normal, who sued Trump 155 instances, gained 83% of the time.
Bonta singled out a number of efforts to thwart Trump, together with former Gov. Jerry Brown’s resolution to signal the Paris local weather accord after Trump dropped out “to take care of that management position on the planet that we’re gonna proceed with local weather motion.”
Becerra challenged Trump’s energy on a variety of fronts, together with local weather, healthcare, immigration, gun management and civil rights. He gained a lot of these battles, together with Trump’s plan to repeal an Obama administration order to guard so-called Dreamers from deportation. Trump deserted plans to add a citizenship query to the census after a multistate lawsuit that included California.
A second Trump time period would possible additionally invite new challenges on abortion legal guidelines, LGBTQ+ rights and the rights of fogeys and youngsters to hunt transgender therapy, Bonta mentioned.
“So there’s a complete lot of contingencies after which, , trying on the totally different constitutional clauses and element components of the Structure that may be the groundwork and the premise for our potential challenges,” he mentioned.
There are limits to the authorized technique that even Bonta acknowledged. The federal authorities has management over immigration enforcement, Trump’s prime precedence. Whereas states can decline some help to the federal authorities, they can’t shield immigrants who’re within the nation illegally from deportation.
“If it’s the federal authorities’s job, they will do it,” he mentioned.
The state can present authorized help and be sure that folks get due course of, however “immigration has lengthy been an space of federal legislation.”
Requested for touch upon Bonta’s plans, Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Republican Nationwide Committee, mentioned, “California liberals will strive something to unfold their failed, fringe-left agenda far and vast, however they gained’t cease President Trump from making America nice once more.”
Bonta was in Washington for an occasion with Vice President Kamala Harris, one other one in all his predecessors, to rejoice Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month. He acknowledged that he’s contemplating a run for governor in 2026 and mentioned he would resolve after the November election. He may additionally run for one more time period as lawyer normal.
