SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers returned to the state Capitol on Monday to start a particular session to protect the state’s progressive policies forward of one other Trump presidency.
The Democratic governor, a fierce critic of President-elect Donald Trump, is positioning California to as soon as once more be the middle of a resistance effort in opposition to the conservative agenda. He’s asking his Democratic allies within the Legislature, who maintain supermajorities in each chambers, to approve extra funding to the legal professional normal’s workplace to arrange for a strong authorized combat in opposition to anticipated federal challenges.
Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel on Monday launched laws to put aside $25 million for authorized charges to reply to potential assaults by the Trump administration on state insurance policies concerning civil rights, local weather change, immigration and abortion entry.
“Whereas we all the time hope to collaborate with our federal companions, California will probably be able to vigorously defend our pursuits and values from any illegal motion by the incoming Trump Administration,” Gabriel stated in a press release.
California sued the first Trump administration greater than 120 occasions to varied ranges of success.
“We’re not going to be caught flat-footed,” Newsom stated at a latest information convention.
Trump usually depicts California as representing all he sees improper in America. Democrats, which maintain each statewide workplace in California and have commanding margins within the Legislature and congressional delegation, outnumber registered Republicans by practically 2-to-1 statewide.
Trump referred to as the Democratic governor “New-scum” throughout a campaign stop in Southern California and has relentlessly lambasted the Democratic stronghold over its massive variety of immigrants within the U.S. illegally, homeless inhabitants and thicket of laws.
Trump additionally waded right into a water rights battle over the endangered delta smelt, a tiny fish that has pitted environmentalists in opposition to farmers and threatened to withhold federal assist to a state more and more below menace from wildfires. He additionally vowed to observe by way of along with his marketing campaign promise of finishing up the mass deportation of immigrants with out authorized standing and prosecuting his political enemies.
Earlier than the particular session begins, state lawmakers are scheduled to swear in additional than two dozen new members and elect leaders for the 2025 legislative session. Lots of of individuals are also planning to march across the Capitol on Monday to induce the Legislature to attempt to cease Trump’s mass deportation plans.
State Legal professional Basic Rob Bonta stated his workplace will shield the state’s immigration inhabitants, whereas Newsom final week unveiled a proposal to revive a rebate program for electrical automobile purchases if the incoming Trump administration eliminates a federal tax credit for individuals who purchase electrical automobiles. Newsom can be contemplating creating a backup disaster relief fund for the wildfire-prone state after Trump’s threats.
Republican lawmakers blasted Newsom and his Democratic allies over the particular session. Rep. Vince Fong, who represents the state’s Central Valley farm belt, stated California ought to work with the incoming Trump administration as a substitute.
“Gavin Newsom’s actions are tone-deaf to the considerations of Californians who disapprove of the course of our state and nation,” Fong stated in a video on social media.
Legislators are also anticipated to spend the yr discussing methods to guard dozens of laws anticipated to be focused by the Trump administration, together with one which has made the state a sanctuary for individuals searching for abortions who stay in states the place such practices have been severely restricted.
California, the nation’s most populous state, was the primary to mandate that by 2035 all new cars, pickup vehicles and SUVs offered in California be electrical, hydrogen-powered or plug-in hybrids. The state additionally extends state-funded health care to all low-income residents no matter their immigration standing.
Newsom hasn’t offered particulars about what actions the lawmakers will think about however stated he wished funding in place earlier than Trump’s inauguration day, Jan. 20. The state spent roughly $42 million in litigation prices through the first Trump administration, officers stated.
California is projected to face a $2 billion finances deficit subsequent yr, with greater shortfalls forward. Gabriel, who sued the primary Trump administration in 2017 when it tried to finish a program to protect younger immigrants from being deported, stated lining up the funding now’s “a clever funding.”
California efficiently clawed again $57 million between 2017 and 2018 after prevailing in a lawsuit to dam the Trump administration from placing immigration enforcement situations on sure federal legislation enforcement grants. One other authorized victory over the citizenship question in the 2020 census compelled the federal authorities to return $850,000 to the state, in accordance with the legal professional normal’s workplace.
“We’re positioned, if mandatory, to be the tip of the spear of the resistance and to push again in opposition to any illegal or unconstitutional actions by the Trump administration,” stated Gabriel, who chairs the finances committee.
Throughout Trump’s first presidency, Democratic attorneys normal banded collectively to file lawsuits over immigration, Trump’s journey ban for residents of Muslim nations, the setting, immigration and different subjects. However Trump has one attainable benefit this time round: He was aggressive in nominating conservative jurists to federal courts in any respect ranges, together with the Supreme Courtroom.
