Democratic AGs sue Trump at record pace
Democratic attorneys general in a handful of states are mounting a fierce battle against President Trump’s government, filing almost 50 lawsuits that have bogged down some of the administration’s key initiatives.
The wave of lawsuits, Democrats say, is the product of an unprecedented effort to coordinate legal actions across state lines, both to defend Obama-era rules and to block what they see as Trump’s overreach.
“Is it fair to say a big part of my day now involves the Trump administration? Yes,” said Bob Ferguson (D), Washington’s attorney general. “If this administration continues on a path of ignoring federal law and the Constitution, then they’ll see us in court. And, frankly, they’ll continue to lose.”
Democrats barely waited for members of the Trump administration to find their offices before they began filing suits. On Jan. 23, just three days after Trump’s inauguration, a group of eight attorneys general sued the administration over emissions standards for middle- and heavyweight vehicles. Another group of 16 states and the District of Columbia sought to intervene in a case weighing the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In the month after that, eight states filed seven lawsuits challenging the validity of Trump’s ban on travel to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries.
“There’s more coordination than there’s ever been at the national level,” said Sean Rankin, who heads the Democratic Attorneys General Association, an outside group that works to elect Democratic candidates. “Democratic [attorneys general] are the only group of elected officials at this moment in time that have got the tools to defend the civil liberties of the American people.”
Attorneys general who once rarely interacted now convene on a weekly conference call organized by Rankin’s group. They have met together at quarterly meetings held around the country, and several have formed close bonds.
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/367147-democratic-ags-sue-trump-at-record-pace
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