Leaders from at least five states made similar announcements about challenging the incoming administration’s policies.
Officials in states including California, New York, Illinois, Washington, and New Jersey are preparing to contest President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming policies—related to immigration, abortion, and environmental regulations—when he assumes office on Jan. 20.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a Nov. 7 statement that he was convening a special session of the Legislature—beginning Dec. 2—to “safeguard” the Golden State’s values and “fundamental rights.”
“California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive,” Newsom said in the statement.
The governor is requesting lawmakers pass legislation providing money to the California Department of Justice and other agencies to fund potential litigation against the incoming Trump administration’s policies.
During Trump’s first term, the Golden State filed more than 120 lawsuits against his administration.
“California developed a successful roadmap for fighting back and standing up for our state’s values and our people’s constitutional rights,” the governor said in a Nov. 7 proclamation.
For more than a year, legal teams from California’s offices of the governor and attorney general have prepared in case Trump won, according to the statement.
“We are marshaling the arguments and evidence needed to be ready to challenge in court unconstitutional and unlawful federal policies, and to mount robust and vigorous defenses of California’s laws, policies and programs, on issues critical to Californian,” the governor wrote.
Trump said in a Nov. 8 Truth Social post that the governor is “trying to kill our nation’s beautiful California” and questioned “insane policy decisions”—including those related to water management, inflation, environmental regulations, illegal immigration, and voter identification—that he said are detrimental to Golden State residents and causing some to flee the state.
“He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the great things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the election,” Trump wrote.
