California Lawyer. Gen. Rob Bonta said he and his staff have been carefully reviewing former President Trump's second-term agenda to prepare for a possible avalanche of environmental, immigration and civil rights lawsuits should Trump defeat President Biden.
“We can't be caught off guard,” Bonta said in an interview Thursday in Washington. “Fortunately and unfortunately, we have four years of Trump 1.0. We know some of the movements and priorities; We hope they are different.”
Bonta, a Democrat who is considering a run for governor, said he has been reviewing the work of his predecessor, Xavier Becerra, who filed more than 100 lawsuits against Trump's policies before leaving office to become secretary of Health and Human Services. of Biden. Bonta and his deputies are also closely studying a document drafted by the Heritage Foundation, a Trump-aligned think tank, known as “Project 2025,” which offers a blueprint for Trump's second-term policy goals.
California's Democratic politicians have long seen themselves as a bulwark against conservative policies, never more so than during the Trump presidency, when the state became the de facto headquarters of the so-called resistance. Challenges to Trump, while popular among many supporters, sometimes put Democrats in the awkward position of asserting states' rights after long advocating for standards that would apply nationwide. Critics said the constant lawsuits were politically motivated and distracted from the attorney general's other duties, including consumer protection.
The challenges also helped Trump politically at times, allowing him to use the state as a counterpoint when he failed to carry out part of his agenda.
With states becoming more polarized, red and blue state attorneys general now play high-profile roles in disputes with the federal government when it is led by the opposing political party. The Obama administration was sued 58 times by Republican attorneys general, according to a count by Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University. Since Biden took office, Republican attorneys general have filed 55 lawsuits challenging his administration's policies.
The figures represent a substantial increase over previous administrations. And in general the lawyers have won. Republican attorneys general beat Obama in court 64% of the time, and are defeating Biden at a rate of 76%, according to Nolette. Democratic attorneys general, who sued Trump 155 times, won 83% of the time.
Bonta highlighted several efforts to thwart Trump, including former Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to sign the Paris climate agreement after Trump abandoned it “to maintain that leadership role in the world that we're going to continue climate action.”
Becerra challenged Trump's power on several fronts, including climate, health care, immigration, gun control and civil rights. She won many of those battles, including Trump's plan to reverse an Obama administration order protecting so-called Dreamers from deportation. Trump abandoned plans to add a citizenship question to the census after a multistate lawsuit that included California.
A second Trump term would also likely raise new challenges over abortion laws, LGBTQ+ rights and the rights of parents and children to seek transgender treatment, Bonta said.
“So there are a lot of contingencies and then, you know, looking at the different constitutional clauses and component parts of the Constitution that would be the basis for our potential challenges,” he said.
There are limits to the legal strategy that even Bonta acknowledged. The federal government has control over immigration law enforcement, Trump's top priority. While states can refuse certain assistance to the federal government, they cannot protect immigrants who are in the country illegally from deportation.
“If it's the federal government's job, they can do it,” he said.
The state can provide legal assistance and ensure people get due process, but “immigration has long been an area of federal law.”
When asked for comment on Bonta's plans, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Anna Kelly said: “California liberals will try anything to spread their failed far-left agenda far and wide, but they won't stop President Trump. Make America Great Again.”
Bonta was in Washington for an event with Vice President Kamala Harris, another of her predecessors, to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. He acknowledged that he is considering running for governor in 2026 and said he would decide after the November election. He could also run for another term as attorney general.
