Democratic attorneys general in 4 states challenge Trump
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman spoke during a March 21 news conference in New York. Schneiderman said his colleagues and other lawyers are being moved to action because they believe Trump “does not have respect for the rule of law.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, right, talked to reporters as Gov. Jay Inslee, left, looked on, Monday, in Seattle. Ferguson announced that he is suing President Donald Trump over an executive order that suspended immigration from seven countries with majority-Muslim populations and sparked nationwide protests.
SEATTLE >> Washington, Massachusetts, Virginia and New York are becoming the first states to sue the Trump administration with filings announced this week over the executive order restricting refugees and immigration. They likely won’t be standing alone for long.
Since Donald Trump was elected president, Democratic state attorneys general have been forming a coordinated wall of legal resistance over immigration, environmental protections, health care, and other major issues.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told The Associated Press that lawyers, including attorneys general, are having an “awakening” regarding the Trump administration.
“This is a president who does not have respect for the rule of the law,” Schneiderman said. “That’s something that bothers a lot of people.”
On Tuesday, Schneiderman, and the attorneys general for Massachusetts and Virginia announced separately that their offices were joining legal challenges to Trump already filed in their states by advocacy groups.
The state officials’ plan for legal pushback has precedent: Several Republican attorneys general made it a practice to routinely file lawsuits against the policies of former President Barack Obama.
Unlike groups taking up fights on behalf of individuals, attorneys general —the chief lawyers for state governments — can sue more broadly on behalf of their states. Most are elected and thus can act independently of their state legislatures or governors.
“It’s my responsibility as attorney general to defend the rule of law, to uphold the Constitution on behalf of the people of this state. And that’s what we’re doing,” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Monday when announcing his lawsuit against Trump’s executive order.
He said other states could join the lawsuit, which asks a judge to throw out key provisions of the order Trump issued Friday to temporarily closes the U.S. to all refugees and all people from seven majority-Muslim countries and bars Syrian refugees indefinitely.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who has held town hall meetings around Massachusetts on responding to Trump, called the policy “harmful, discriminatory and unconstitutional.”
The administration says such action is needed to protect the country from terrorist attacks. Since it was issued, the White House has said people from the banned countries who have permission to work in the U.S. can enter.
On Sunday, 17 Democratic attorneys general signed a letter vowing to “use all of the tools of our offices to fight this unconstitutional order.” Most of the signatories were from states controlled by Democrats and that Hillary Clinton won in November. But also signing were the Democratic attorneys general from Iowa and Pennsylvania, which voted for Trump, and Maine, where the electoral vote was split.
Attorneys general have taken smaller actions since Trump was elected, both on their own and in concert.
For example, some wrote Trump calling for him to keep former President Barack Obama’s clean power plan in place.
In January, a group of them asked a judge to let it intervene in a court case on the constitutionality of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That motion could be a step toward the state officials defending the office in court. Trump said Monday he intends to do “a big number” on the bill that created the agency. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller told the AP that protecting the office is a priority.
Some attorneys general banded together to urge the U.S. Senate to reject Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to lead the U.S. Department of Justice.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said he has spoken with advocacy groups about legal strategies. Among them is Planned Parenthood, which is preparing to react if Trump and the GOP-led Congress defund the organization.
One of the first steps T.J. Donovan took when he became attorney general in Vermont this month was forming a task force to advise him on immigration policies.
State attorneys general have a history of banding together. Most notably, a series of lawsuits from them led to the 1998 tobacco industry settlement under which cigarette makers agreed to pay states more than $200 billion over 25 years.
Republican attorneys general sued President Obama over his health insurance overhaul minutes after he signed it and over his rules to limit power plant emissions even before the details were final. In both cases, courts sided with them, at least in part. After Trump won the White House in November, taking on the president became part of the job description for their Democratic counterparts.
State attorneys general have become more active since the administration of former President George W. Bush, especially when it comes to federal laws and policies, said a scholar who studies the office.
“It’s become such an established part of what AG’s do on the national level,” said Paul Nolette, an assistant professor of political science at Marquette University. “It’s become much more AG’s going on the offensive.”
23 responses to “Democratic attorneys general in 4 states challenge Trump”
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Agree that state attorney generals will need to protect their states from Trump’s excesses. Trump is surrounded by inexperienced but malign forces. I am pleased that AD Chin is standing up to Trump. Trump’s values do not comport with Hawaii.
Hon, this is nothing by whining, special interest controlled, Snowflake AGs whining like step children. For decades they did nothing and now caught with their hands in the cookie jar, crying and whining.
Hon, what these losers fail to understand they, unlike Trump, are charged with protecting the USA against terrorism, other threats. AGs sit on their fat rear end, direct the assistant AGs to do their work.
Hon, these clueless AGs are a disgrace, Chin among them. Soon as they realize who is in charge and start doing their job the better it will be. If not, fire them.
Trump is an incompetent buffoon, and is presiding over the most dysfunctional transition in history. This explains why most of his businesses failed.
So we follows the rules and laws we agree with only?
Are you calling 1/2 the population of the Good Ole US of A baffoons? lol, more EO’s are coming your way so don’t blink your eyes
Pocho – You need to have a literate friend fred my comment to you. I wrote no such thing, of course.
Trump is supported by much less than 1/2 the population. He lost the vote by about 3 million.
If he signs any more unconstitutional EOs, they will be stayed or overturned. It’s time to fight. The ACLU raised more than 5 years worth of their annual budget last weekend from patriots who want to stop Trump. Great times!
Oops. friend
fred should be capitalized. “Fred”. Still in eighth grade?
Great, but when law-enforcement fails to enforce the actual laws and ruling on law by judges (as with the CPB protected and shielded by regular police officers) then the American Experiment is at an end. Those of you who wear a badge have to choose a side, the law or the man and then act. Choose wisely and look to history to see what happened to those societies that went against the rule of law – and in many instances the police became war criminals and were found to have committed crimes against humanity.
TeanTrump News Alert
Check out what the haters and losers have dredged up now to make Trump look bad – An exchange from Sally “the Traitor” Yates’s Senate confirmation hearing:
SESSIONS: You have to watch out because people will be asking you to do things you just need to say “no” about. Do you think the Attorney General has the responsibility to say no to the President if he asks for something that’s improper? A lot of people have defended the [Loretta] Lynch nomination, for example, by saying, “Well [Obama] appoints somebody who’s going to execute his views. What’s wrong with that?” But if the views the president wants to execute are unlawful, should the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General say no?
YATES: Senator, I believe the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General has an obligation to follow the law and the Constitution, and to give their independent legal advice to the president.
Obviously this is Fake news. Fake news. Fake news.
And if its not fake news, because it was recorded by CSOAN, then it’s a liberal Democrat conspiracy.
Sally Yates only gave that answer in 2015 because she knew that in 2017 a glorious President Trump would eventually get elected, and that he would take bold action to protect Americans, and that she would become the acting AG and would try to block him. And then her plan was to hide behind the Constitution just to make him look bad because Shilary lost.
Judge Yates plotted and schemed for 2 years. How awful. She must hate America. There’s no other explanation, right?
Furtthermore, Yates probably tricked Sessions into asking her the loaded question, knowing this would one day make Sessions and Trump both look bad. Sessions has a kind heart and just fell into her fiendish trap.
It just shows what Trump’s enemies are capable of. That was a very sad day for America. Very Sad.
But Yates is gone now. She made the wrong choice and messed with the wrong president. YOU’RE FIRED!
Next time maybe she’ll realize that President Trump is bigger and classier and stronger than mere words on a flimsy piece of paper.
“TeamTrump News Alert”
“CSPAN”
Watch clip:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4653400/senator-sessions-advising-sally-yates-disobey-improper-presidential-orders
Interesting, local cops don’t like the Feds, period. Who puts cops in jail, Feds. Remember the Freeman in Montana, hated the Feds. Loved the Sheriff. Some cops in these sanctuary cities love this. A Fed badge don’t mean nothing to them. Some federal jurisdictions actually go out and recruit federal agents from the local police( Feds have an exemption for local cops that qualify, to by pass the college requirement.) Generally 5 years of previous law enforcement. By doing this new agent is returned to the community that he was recruited from and becomes the liaison guy. Here in Honolulu, Feds deputized HPD Narcos, work under a DEA agent with making local narcotics cases, then when an opening for Honolulu occurs, HPD guy applies. U.S. Marshalls do the same thing with their fugitive task force. Who is going to put Louie in jail…………the Feds. Lots of line function guys may not like Louie but they hate the Feds worse. I now work for the Feds now, every time I go to the weight room former cops ask me how could I do it…..MONEY….Feds pay extremely well, locality pay, cola….
Trump is not a professional politician. He doesn’t dance to the music to any of the politicians that have grace our political scenes but he was elected as our President! The “Professionals” have seen their lights darken by a novice unlike them. Maybe we needed this change to appreciate what we have had and lost in the past.
It might help just a bit if would at least read the Constitution. He hates reading, but might consider that one exception.
On the other hand, he’s a psychotic, so reading that document might not change much anyway.
President Trump is doing a great job. Listen instead of spewing hate and you may be saved. God Bless America.
We love having thousands of refugees descend upon us uninvited. We don’t care if some of them might be terrorists. We’re happy to give all of them free housing, food, and healthcare at our expense (even if you disagree, we’re going to tax the heck out of you to give free stuff to our newfound friends from Syria, Yemen, Somalia, etc.). We love them so much we are going to file a lawsuit against the president who wants to stop them until they can be verified as non-terrorists. Borders schmorders. We are all citizens of the world.
It’s great to have you here on the dark side, Kenneth.
With all your talk about how Hawaiians are racists who want to kick out those without their magical blood, and about how the gorious United States protects the rights of everyone, I would have thought you might have sympathy for Trump’s call to treat people differently based on religion or race.
What a releif, Kenneth, to know you don’t really believe in all that “equality” nonsense after all.
“…I would have thought you might have NO sympathy for Trump’s call to treat people differently based on religion or race….”
No surprise that “blue” states will resist. To expect otherwise is comical.
Keep in mind that 5 states that voted for Obama twice flipped to favor Trump over Hillary.
Two of the biggest concerns for Americans prior to the election was #1 economy, #2 terrorism.
With that said, 57% of likely voters approve of Trump’s temporary immigration ban.
Some of these AG’s might lose their jobs come next election cycle to add to the 1000+ elected positions that Dems lost in the past 8 years. The silent majority has a lot of voting power with the exception of coastal states (incl. HI) in the west and northeast.
It’s actually a minority. You apparently aren’t good at arithmetic either.
You apparently are a poor loser. Trump won. Get over it.
klastri says:
January 31, 2017 at 8:47 am
“It’s actually a minority. You apparently aren’t good at arithmetic either.”
Oh really?
Compare states and counties won by Trump vs. Hillary which is contrary to your beliefs klastri. As for your coveted popular vote? Remove California from this country and Trump would have won the popular vote by over a million. Sorry klastri, CA doesn’t rule the entire US nor does it have the right to. Go ahead and keep living in your liberal fantasy land klastri, I don’t care what you think.
These liberal AGs from the corrupt Democrat Party support their party more than the country, shameful. They deal in the business of obstruction than construction, the corrupt Democrat Party is better known as the Party of No!