California officials are reportedly gearing up to do battle with President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office.
The Golden State’s leadership is assembling a legal team to offer up a defense against federal policies Trump is expected to enact, according to The Washington Post. But this time around, it may not be quite as easy for them as it was under the president-elect’s first term.
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Within hours of Donald Trump’s victory this month, California’s top elected officials readied themselves to reprise familiar roles as leaders of the Democratic resistance.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special session of the state legislature to discuss the best ways of “Trump-proofing” California and traveled to Washington to ask for President Joe Biden’s help.
Attorney General Rob Bonta held a news conference in front of the Golden Gate Bridge to declare that, “if Trump attacks your rights, I’ll be there.”
And Democratic lawmakers at every level of government here issued statements ensuring residents they will fight hard against any federal incursions.
California’s leading liberals spent months plotting how they might oppose a Trump administration were he to win, and many of them have been here before, as recently as four years ago during the president-elect’s first term.
During a legislative special session, Gov. Newsom waxed hysterical about the prospect of dealing with another Trump administration. “The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack – and we won’t sit idle,” he intoned.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta channeled the Jackson Five, promising that “If Trump attacks your rights, I’ll be there.”
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However, the report suggests that there might be reason to believe California’s officials will have a harder time mounting their “resistance” against Trump, noting how the president-elect appointed a number of judges during his first term that might pose a challenge to efforts to use the courts as a weapon against the incoming administration.
“Trump appointees now comprise more than a third of [the Ninth Circuit’s] 29 judges,” a stark shift from the court’s historically liberal composition,” the report noted.
“While the court system may be less friendly this time around, experts say a barrage of litigation from California and like-minded states could still stall Trump administration actions,” noted Eric Schickler, a political scientist at UC Berkeley.
Trump has vowed to target California’s EPA waivers for vehicle emissions after taking office. He pledged to limit federal funding for government-run schools attempting to indoctrinate children into progressive gender ideology and ramp up enforcement of immigration laws.
Newsom expressed concerns about the immigration battle, stating that the president-elect’s “promised mass deportation could wreak havoc in California, home to an estimated 1.8 million unauthorized immigrants,” The Post reported.
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If Trump follows through on his campaign promises, it could affect a significant chunk of California’s federal funding, which makes up about six to nine percent of its education budget.
This development comes as blue state governors are brainstorming ways to stymie Trump’s agenda. Since Democrats lost control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, their options are limited to using the court system to challenge the administration’s agenda.
This time around, it appears the left will rely less on frantic purple-haired protesters in the streets and more on progressive lawyers filing lawsuits. But, as The Post indicated, the new makeup of the federal judiciary might pose an insurmountable obstacle in many cases.
