Washington, DC – With the looming threat of a second Trump administration, state attorneys general are prepared for their role as the last line of defense against an extremist agenda that would put Americans’ lives and liberties on the line. State attorneys general are ready to use every tool they have to uphold and defend the Constitution, protect rights and freedoms for all, and hold bad actors accountable to the rule of law.

This week, Ann O’Leary, the former co-director of Hillary Clinton’s presidential transition team and California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first chief of staff, wrote an op-ed in The Hill about the important contributions state attorneys general have made in the past and outlined how they will continue to fight against weaponized governance from the incoming Trump administration.

Key highlights:

• “Democratic governors and state attorneys general could be the last line of defense when Trump takes power again in January and begins implementing his extremist agenda. States will need to stand up to challenge, delay and derail his party’s plans to further limit abortion rights, gut environmental protections, undermine the Affordable Care Act, and more.”

• “And of the 155 lawsuits filed by Democratic state attorneys general against the Trump administration, an impressive 83 percent were successful. In a second Trump administration, attorneys general in blue states will again be on the front lines.”

• “And states have the power to push a regulatory agenda. For example, years before the United States established a federal air quality law, California established its own nation-leading air-pollution standards that other states adopted. Eventually, the Environmental Protection Agency did, too.”
• “I’ve seen how state attorneys general can affect — and frustrate — national policy through litigation…These officials stepped into a void left by congressional gridlock and limitations imposed by the Supreme Court on public interest groups’ ability to sue.”

• “Democratic state attorneys general will be pivotal in shaping national policy and protecting the rights and freedoms of Americans in all states…‘the most powerful elected position in the United States today … is not the Congress, the House of Representatives or the Senate, but is among the fifty state attorneys general.’”

###