‘We saw this coming': State attorneys general are ready for Trump 2.0
This week, another federal judge temporarily blocked the administration's attempt to freeze federal assistance and loans. This came after another joint lawsuit with 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia challenged the move.
This swift legal action from some of the country's top law enforcement officials was months in the making, former Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum told The 19th.
'We saw this coming, even though we hoped it wouldn't. We started preparing as the Democratic AGs almost two years ago for the potential eventuality,' Rosenblum said in an interview days after Trump's inauguration. 'I believe that there's no group better prepared to push back where appropriate.'
Rosenblum entered office as Oregon's first woman attorney general in 2012 and served during three presidential administrations before stepping away in December 2024. In her position, she oversaw an office of more than 350 lawyers who challenged the first Trump administration hundreds of times on things from executive orders to federal rule changes.
She was part of a group of Democratic attorneys general who sued the administration over its travel ban on several majority-Muslim countries and its attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protects certain undocumented people brought to the United States as children.
Rosenblum explained that before suing, a state attorney general's office staff must evaluate whether a specific policy will be harmful to people in her state, assemble a legal team that consults with other state attorney general offices to decide what cases to sign onto and divide responsibilities as well as determine which courts would be the most appropriate to file a legal complaint. As the team builds its case, it also gathers personal testimony from people who have been directly affected by the policies.
Rosenblum noted that last week's challenges to Trump's birthright citizenship order — brought by her successor in Oregon and more than 20 other state attorneys general — were filed in two states, Massachusetts and Washington state.
'Sometimes it makes sense to have multiple actions sort of paralleling each other,' Rosenblum said. 'What you do as lawyers is you take a look at what potential claims can be brought, and then you decide which ones are going to be most likely to be successful. You don't necessarily want to throw all the mud on the ball. You want to pick and choose.'
A lot has changed since Trump first sat in the Oval Office eight years ago, she added.
'We didn't know what he was going to do, and we didn't really know a whole lot about how to push back,' Rosenblum said of Trump's first term.
At the time, Trump lost a number of legal challenges because of executive actions that were rushed, 'frivolous' and 'over the top,' according to Rosenblum. A federal district court judge said in 2018 that the Trump team's reason for seeking to end the DACA program was 'virtually unexplained' in its legal arguments.
Ahead of Trump's inauguration, legal advocates indicated that Trump's staffers have likely learned lessons and will sharpen their executive orders and directives with fewer mistakes this time around.
'We knew that they had better lawyers. We knew that they learned some lessons. I think now they're smarter about it, they're going to be more careful,' Rosenblum said. Still, there will inevitably be some mistakes, she continued, pointing to Trump's first round of executive orders. Some 'look like they've just been thrown together on a napkin,' Rosenblum said, while others 'they've been working on for a long time.'
The landscape of federal courts is also different today from 2017. Trump's judicial appointments not only led to the most conservative Supreme Court in decades, but he also shifted key appellate courts like the 9th Circuit to the right. Rosenblum is concerned about what this means for the future of cases that center on issues affecting historically marginalized groups like women, people of color and transgender people.
Well before Trump even won the 2024 presidential election, Democratic attorney general offices were planning. They did not know exactly what the wording of potential executive orders and other directives from Trump would say, but the attorneys did what they could to be more nimble on key areas like immigration. Their offices drafted memos, sample legal complaints and legal documents that could be used as templates when the time came to file a lawsuit, Rosenblum said.
After Trump won the election and reality set in, Democratic state attorneys general met in Philadelphia a few weeks later. There was extreme disappointment and reflection over the results, Rosenblum said, but the group was also determined to take on the work ahead. Some of Trump's toughest legal critics issued statements about the results of the election, expressing their intention to fight for the rights of people in their states.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell wrote at the time that she is 'clear-eyed that President-elect Trump has told us exactly what he intends to do as president, and that we need to believe him and to be ready for the challenges ahead.'
New York Attorney General Letitia James echoed those sentiments in November. 'My office has been preparing for a potential second Trump Administration, and I am ready to do everything in my power to ensure our state and nation do not go backwards,' she wrote. 'During his first term, we stood up for the rule of law and defended against abuses of power and federal efforts to harm New Yorkers.' Since James took office in 2019, she and Trump have publicly clashed, particularly after her office sued Trump and the Trump Organization for financial fraud. Last year Trump said James has a 'big, nasty, and ugly mouth' and called her 'low IQ.'
To legal advocates, both state attorneys general and beyond, Rosenblum advised that it will be important to stay resilient, to partner up where appropriate, and to not let internal conflict get in the way of the larger mission of the work.
'I would not be surprised to see more actions being brought by attorneys general within the next few days, certainly weeks. And again, it's a work in progress. It's very fluid,' she said. 'But the bottom line is, I know that the Democratic attorneys general are ready.
The post 'We saw this coming': State attorneys general are ready for Trump 2.0 appeared first on The 19th.
News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's D.C. Goon Squads Are Un-American
When President Donald Trump first declared a crime emergency in the nation's capital and sent hundreds of federal law enforcement agents to patrol its streets, this district resident had a hard time taking it too seriously. The initial images of bored Drug Enforcement Administration agents strolling past perplexed joggers on the National Mall were more clownish than carceral. Local street resistance to the occupation was limited to a drunk guy throwing a sandwich at a federal agent. But inevitably, as this operation has dragged on, things have taken a darker turn. The sandwich-thrower was overcharged and rearrested in a needless, publicized show of force. Masked federal agents have set up an unconstitutional checkpoint, violently arrested at least one delivery driver, and filmed themselves tearing down a banner protesting their presence in the city. Each day, more and more National Guard members pour into the capital. The conversation about Trump's declared crime emergency has understandably, albeit unhelpfully, provoked a lot of discourse about how safe D.C. is, whether a federalized local police department will make it safer, whether federal agents are being deployed in the right places and going after the right crimes, and on and on. This incessant crime conversation has distracted from just how un-American Trump's show of force in the nation's capital is. Uniformed troops and masked federal agents doing routine law enforcement at the command of the president is just not how we do things in the United States. The entire point of the U.S. Constitution is to prevent the federal government from becoming a despotism, and one of the primary ways it does this is by limiting how many men with guns it has at its disposal. This is why the Constitution places strict constraints on maintaining a standing army. It's why there are only three crimes mentioned in the Constitution, none of which would plausibly require federal agents to patrol U Street. It's why questions of what to criminalize and who to prosecute were largely left up to the states. The Third Amendment is mostly treated as an anachronistic joke today. In fact, it is a load-bearing part of the Constitution that makes clear that the military and the police are different things and that Americans should not have to tolerate the presence of armed agents of the states as a routine part of daily life. Obviously we've deviated considerably from this ideal since the founding generation. The federal criminal code is now extensive. The feds' wars on drugs, terror, and immigration have grown the number of militarized federal agents doing law enforcement activities. Federal money has subsidized a similar trend of militarization of state and local police forces. Reason has been decrying this trend for decades. In his book Rise of the Warrior Cop, Radley Balko writes about how the trend of increased police militarization has eroded the "Symbolic Third Amendment" and the free society it protects. It's darkly ironic then that, after decades of politicians of both parties in D.C. gifting the federal government vast powers to police the rest of the country, a militarized federal police force is now being deployed on the streets of America's capital against its residents. This is why arguments about whether federal agents could be more effectively deployed in less visible, higher crime areas of the city are completely beside the point. The federal government acting as a beat cop is inimical to our constitutional design, regardless of how effective its efforts are. That D.C. is a federal district might seem to complicate this point. In fact, it reinforces it. Despite being a constitutionally peculiar special district, a lot of effort has been put into giving D.C. a local police force that does not practically function as an arm of the federal government. Even in the seat of federal power, it's understood that a force of federal agents policing everyday life is not something ordinary citizens should have to put up with. That Trump has the power to federalize the D.C. police or deploy the D.C. National Guard doesn't stop his actions from being authoritarian and offensive to the spirit of the Constitution, even if it doesn't violate the letter of it. It's also cold comfort that Trump's declared crime emergency is clearly mostly a performative act to rile up the libs and not a serious effort at combating crime. While the president is staging the performance, it's disconcerting that he's opted to cast himself as the villain in the play. Moreover, the longer federal agents are deployed on D.C. streets, the greater the odds that more serious abuses do happen. It's true that D.C. today is not as locked down as it has been in recent years. The police-enforced curfews during the George Floyd protests or the security cordons that sprang up after the January 6 riots were a lot more visible and heavy-handed. Excessive as those police actions were (particularly the latter), they were at least being done as an emergency response to widespread breakdowns in public order. Trump is rolling out the feds in D.C. to do routine law enforcement. That's un-American. The post Trump's D.C. Goon Squads Are Un-American appeared first on Solve the daily Crossword
The Hill
23 minutes ago
- The Hill
Democrats press DHS for ‘Alligator Alcatraz' information
Democratic lawmakers are pressing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for more information about how the Trump administration teamed up with the state of Florida to create a controversial detention facility for migrants in the middle of the Everglades. 'Brushing aside concerns from human rights watchdogs, environmentalist groups, and Tribal nations, [DHS] has greenlit the construction of this expansive detention facility that may violate detained individuals' human rights, jeopardize public and environmental health and violate federal law,' House and Senate Democrats wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem dated Wednesday. The detention facility, dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' opened in early July to house arrested migrants awaiting deportation. It was created through a state and federal partnership, with Florida officials leading oversight and construction, with DHS footing the bill. President Trump toured the facility when it opened, along with Noem. A federal judge last week temporarily halted expansion of the site after tribal and environmental groups filed a lawsuit over potential damage to wetlands. Located just south of Miami, Alligator Alcatraz quickly raised alarms about conditions for detainees in the hot, humid climate. Some whistleblowers have described worm-infested food, plumbing problems and other issues since its opening. 'The Everglades site was selected precisely because of its remote location and harsh surroundings, which Florida officials reportedly view as 'an ideal location to house and transport migrants,'' the Democrats wrote in their letter Wednesday. 'We ask that DHS promptly provide critical information for the American public to better understand this detention plan.' The letter was signed by more than five dozen members of Congress, led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). It requested that DHS respond to several questions by September 3.
The Hill
23 minutes ago
- The Hill
‘South Park' mocks Trump's DC takeover in upcoming episode
An upcoming episode of 'South Park' is set to make fun of President Trump's efforts to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C. A teaser for the Wednesday evening episode, released on social media and YouTube, shows the iconic character 'Towlie' arriving in Washington, D.C. As 'Towlie' gets off a bus arriving in the district, a tank rolls by in front of the White House while the character says, 'This seems like the perfect place for a towel.' Trump has sparked widespread backlash with his takeover of the local police force and mobilization of National Guard troops to help fight crime in D.C. 'South Park' has used the first several episodes of its new season to mock Trump and his allies, poking fun at the administration's deportation efforts as well as controversy relating to the Jeffery Epstein files. The show has targeted media conglomerate Paramount, the parent company of Comedy Central which earlier this year awarded the show's creators a new lucrative contract for rights to broadcast the animated satire program.
