Progressive governors and attorneys normal are already shifting to defy Donald Trump two months earlier than the president-elect retakes the Oval Office. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom referred to as on lawmakers Thursday to convene a particular session aimed toward “Trump-proofing” state legal guidelines. New York Governor Kathy Hochul introduced a statewide initiative to fight “policy and regulatory threats” from the Trump administration. And in Illinois and Massachusetts, lawmakers stated they’d combat the federal authorities to guard weak and undocumented residents—together with resisting future deportation requests.
“Every tool in the toolbox has got to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents and protect our states, and certainly to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law as a basic principle,” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey stated.
The rising battle traces hearken again to the primary Trump administration—and invert the same old politics round “state’s rights.” Now, these identical varieties of state legal guidelines could make locations like California and New York bulwarks in opposition to Trump’s radical second-term agenda. The president-elect has promised to provoke mass deportations, roll again gun security legal guidelines and dismantle environmental protections. Critics concern his administration would additionally transfer to additional limit abortion entry.
Blue states can theoretically combat these insurance policies by way of state laws, lawsuits, poll initiatives and government motion by the governor’s workplace. According to Indivisible, a progressive organizing group shaped in response to Trump’s first election, Democrats presently management the governorship and legislature in 14 states—making them the most certainly sizzling spots for anti-Trump motion. Three moved to shore up progressive insurance policies even forward of Trump’s win, voting Tuesday to enshrine abortion rights of their state constitutions. Blue-state governors are additionally promising to muster authorized and monetary sources in protection of potential threats from the incoming administration.
They will face extra obstacles to defying Trump now than they did 5 years in the past. For one factor, Trump carried out much better than anticipated in progressive states, together with New York and California. The president-elect additionally loaded the courts with conservative judges throughout his first administration, which can hamper future authorized challenges from the left. Healy appeared to acknowledge as a lot in a latest look on MSNBC: “In 2016, we had a very different situation in the courts,” she stated.
Still, blue-state leaders have struck a pugnacious pose. On Thursday, Newsom wrote on X that California’s particular legislative session would develop methods to “fight” any rollback of the state’s progressive civil rights, local weather and reproductive healthcare insurance policies underneath Trump. A day earlier, New York Attorney General Letitia James—whose workplace took practically 100 authorized actions in opposition to Trump throughout and after his first time period—vowed that New York would “not shrink” from battles with the incoming administration. “We did not expect this result, but we are prepared to respond to this result,” she stated. “We faced this challenge before, and we used the rule of law to fight back.”