With just 74 days until Donald Trump enters the Oval Office for the second time, California elected officials are battening down the hatches.
It won’t be the Golden State’s first show of resistance against the soon-to-be Republican president. California filed regular lawsuits against the executive branch during Trump’s first term — averaging a legal challenge twice a month from former Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
On Thursday, Attorney General Rob Bonta said that California’s legal apparatus will crank back up in anticipation of Trump’s plans for immigration and other issues that impact California, and that the Golden State stands at the ready. He is already discussing those plans with other state attorneys general and has draft litigation written, Bonta said.
“We know to take Trump at his word when he says he’ll roll back environmental protections, go after our immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities, attack our civil rights, and restrict access to essential reproductive care, which means we won’t be flat-footed,” Bonta said at a press conference Thursday. “You can be sure that as California attorney general, if Trump attacks your rights, I’ll be there. If Trump comes after your freedoms, I’ll be there. If Trump jeopardizes your safety and your well-being, I’ll be there. California DOJ did it before, and we will do it again.”
Bonta specifically addressed what is likely to become a major confrontation with the Republican president: Trump’s promise to follow through with mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Other issues that are likely to arise include abortion, climate policy, and gun control.
Others around the state are also making preparations.
Gov. Gavin Newsom will convene a special legislative session “to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration,” his office announced Thursday.
The special session will secure funding for a legal funding to “vigorously” take on Trump’s policies, according to state Sen. Scott Wiener’s office.
“California will not roll over while our basic freedoms and values are trampled by Donald Trump and his allies,” Wiener said in a statement.
City Attorney David Chiu, whose office regularly filed lawsuits during Trump’s first presidency, has also signaled he will challenge the chief executive.
“I wish there were only one issue that we could be concerned about,” he said in an interview. “But as we experienced during the first administration, we were defending so many facets of our society, our values, and our communities, from immigration and health care and gun violence and the environment to social services and housing.”
During Trump’s first presidency, California filed challenges against the executive branch on a slew of issues, including immigration, gun control, and the environment.
The state was able to curb some of Trump’s plans, including a policy to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which was eventually found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Republican president also tried adding a citizenship question to the census but abandoned the idea after California entered into a multistate lawsuit challenging the policy.
Democratic attorneys general did well in fighting back against Trump: A Marquette University tally shows an 83% win rate during his initial term. Republicans have also filed their share of lawsuits against the Biden administration, the tally shows.