States Resist Trump

OPPOSING AN ADMINISTRATION OF CHAOS, CRISIS, AND CRUELTY

When people tell you what they intend to do, believe them! So why should we be surprised at the actions of this Administration and their allies in Congress? Look what has happened in the first 10 days. We have seen an Executive Order to undo birthright citizenship, a right not only specifically granted in the 14th amendment to our Constitution, but which enjoys 127 years of legal precedent. Efforts have been renewed to reclassify federal employees so they will be easier to discharge if they object to the policies of the president. Trump fired 17 Inspectors General, the internal watchdogs who monitor federal agencies, and who could provide a check on his power.

To prove how serious this administration is about supporting the “rule of law”, Trump pardoned hundreds of convicted J6 protestors, including many who attacked and injured law enforcement. In a questionable legal move, Trump is attempting to stop major projects in both red and blue states for highway expansions, water system upgrades, manufacturing investments, and, of course, renewable energy. House Republicans have advanced massive cuts in the Medicaid program, which, if passed by the Senate, will blow gigantic holes in state budgets across the country and reduce health care access for millions of low income and disabled Americans. The U.S. Senate has confirmed a man as Defense Secretary who paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault and whose behavior toward his former wife has generated consternation about his stability to assume the office.

Republicans have generally gone along, including Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, who seems neither to understand how many federal employees live in the Commonwealth nor comprehend the massive impact that Medicaid cuts will have on its citizens, many of whom voted for both him and Trump. Don’t expect this climate to improve anytime soon.

HOPEFUL SIGNS? FOCUS ON THE STATES AND “THE LAWYERS”

While the mainstream media rushes to declare the end of the resistance, such conclusions may be premature. Though exhaustion and a sense of denial seem to have settled over many, there are signs that opposition is not fading away but rather recalibrating. Evidence is surfacing to suggest that opposition is regrouping and developing new strategies aimed at delaying or even blocking key aspects of the MAGA agenda until the next midterms.

Democrats can do what they can in the Congress, but their minority status in both houses will limit their effectiveness. Effective opposition is instead likely to emerge from the states and from networks of progressive-minded lawyers and citizen groups who have honed their skills in fighting Trump’s first administration and then transitioned to battle in red states to protect voting and civil rights.

In the aftermath of Trump’s election, several Democratic Governors, including California’s Gov. Newsom called on the legislature to “Trump proof” the state, and was then able to secure an additional $50 million to assist in legal claims that the state might bring, even as he was attempting to secure federal disaster relief to rebuild after massive fires in the state. Massachusetts Gov. Healey vowed that state police would not cooperate with mass deportations. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James created the Empire State Freedom Initiative, pledging to increase coordination between their offices to “protect New Yorkers’ fundamental freedoms from any potential threats.” In Illinois, Gov. Pritzker proudly proclaimed that “you come for my people, you come through me,” perhaps a reason why ICE is rumored to be planning major immigration raids in Chicago.

Prior to Trump’s inauguration, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and other Democratic attorneys general preemptively filed suit to protect a Biden administration rule that gave people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program access to private health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

These states and their attorneys are battle-tested. During the first Trump administration, Washington State was a party to 99 lawsuits against the federal government and won 55 of them. California sued the Republican administration at least 123 times, and won over 80. And when Trump’s DOJ did little to defend the Affordable Care Act after the state of Texas filed suit to challenge its constitutionality, California joined 17 other states to intervene and help preserve the Act.

AGs have shown they can move quickly. Within hours of Trump’s issuance of his birthright citizenship E.O., Attorneys general from 22 states sued in two federal district courts to block it. Western District of Washington Judge John C. Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee, sided with the AGs and has temporarily voided the E.O., opining that it is “blatantly unconstitutional”.

Sixteen states have now challenged Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to construct the border wall, and more actions are undoubtedly coming.

CITIZEN GROUPS

State attorneys general are government actors. But also watch legal actions of traditional advocacy groups like the ACLU, Common Cause, Public Citizen, and the Brennan Center, and new ones such as State Democracy Defenders Action, a coalition recently assembled by former Ambassador Norm Eisen that boasts diverse supporters from the head of Moveon.org to Bill Kristol. The group has developed an American Autocracy Threat Tracker to catalog the administration’s conservative agenda, and is committed to resist the DOJ if it abandons its traditional role of defending federal policies and civil rights or seeks to weaponize the agency against the American people. Democracy Forward, a legal group created after Trump won in 2016 and whose board includes prominent election law litigator Marc Elias and Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain, has now built a multimillion-dollar war chest and assembled more than 800 lawyers to respond to a wide array of legal issues.

VIRGINIA’S 2025 ELECTIONS MEAN MORE THAN EVER

Legal strategies are important, but elections reveal the true mood of the electorate and chart the nation’s course. That’s why all eyes are on Virginia in 2025. This November marks the first election since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Virginia will be the battleground for three statewide offices—Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General—as well as all 100 seats in the House of Delegates.

Given Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s staunch support for Trump and the former president’s penchant for wading into political battles, this election is shaping up as a referendum on his policies. The last time Trump occupied the Oval Office, Virginia’s backlash was unmistakable. In vote-heavy areas like Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, many federal employees distrusted Trump, particularly his efforts to cut and politicize the federal workforce. Democrats won all statewide offices and gained the majority in the House of Delegates.

That same dynamic could easily resurface this year. If it does, Virginia Republicans will face considerable headwinds. Youngkin may leave office as a political outlier in a state that increasingly leans blue, and Trump could find himself grappling with a new political landscape—one led by the likes of former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger and a potential Democratic Attorney General eager to join the national effort to defend Americans’ rights.

The Virginia election will not just determine who governs the Commonwealth—it will provide an indication of where the nation stands and where it is headed.

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