DENVER, CO – Last week, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser was joined by Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, and Washington AG Nick Brown for the fourth in a series of multi-attorney general Community Impact Hearings. The AGs heard from a wide range of individuals who have been harmed by the Trump administration’s actions, while also highlighting the important work attorneys general are doing to hold Trump accountable to the rule of law.

As NOTUS reported, “The public squabbling over how to respond to the Trump administration from governors and senators has therefore not been a part of the attorney general response for the most part: They talk about who is going to take what to court, and then they take it to court.”

Key Highlights from NOTUS:

• “‘Even in the midst of all this craziness and nonsense and real undermining our democracy, at least from my perspective… I think our system has been working the way it has been intended to work,’ Brown told the crowd. ‘For the most part, our system, our justice system, our courts have been working the way that they’re supposed to work.’”

• “‘We’re going to continue to be able to withstand this onslaught, which by the way is by design,’ Ford said. ‘There is a psychological and vengeance-oriented focus around this mass attempt to overwhelm people that we will not fall prey to.’”
• “Their track record is pretty good. Courts have temporarily stopped Trump from doing many things he wants to do as lawsuits move forward.” 
• “‘I would say the results thus far are a combination of deeply concerning to mildly encouraging,’ Weiser told reporters in Denver.”
• “My role as attorney general is to defend and uphold the rule of law,” AG Ford said. “And when he violates it, I will meet him in court and I will beat him in court.” 

Key Highlights from Colorado Newsline:

• “Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told a crowd gathered in a Denver high school auditorium Wednesday night that opponents of President Donald Trump’s administration are fighting ‘to keep America, America.’” 
• “‘These court victories are important, but more important is everyone’s voice,’ Weiser said, encouraging the crowd to join protests like the one that drew 8,000 people to the Colorado Capitol on April 5. ‘We need to use our voice.’” 
• “Weiser said the legal challenges have borne some fruit in the form of preliminary injunctions and other procedural victories, but acknowledged growing alarm over whether ‘this democratic republic (will) hold.’”
• “‘We won’t tolerate people being picked up without any process and shipped to some other country with no recourse,’  Weiser told the crowd to applause. ‘The First Amendment matters, because when you speak, and you speak your truth, you cannot be — in this country — retaliated against for speaking your truth.’”
• “Brown, elected as Washington attorney general last year, said that the outcomes of some legal challenges to the administration — like the restoration of grant funding that Trump had attempted to freeze — had ‘for the most part’ given him ‘confidence in our system.’ But that confidence is now being tested.” 
• “‘This is the first time — this week, in the days past — where I think we’re really getting to the precipice of a constitutional crisis,’ [AG Brown] said. ‘And I don’t say that lightly.’”
• “Trump’s mass layoffs, funding freezes and attempted shutdowns of congressionally-established agencies amount to an unprecedented expansion of executive power that runs contrary to longstanding separation-of-powers principles in the U.S. Constitution.” 
• “‘I don’t have all the answers. I do not know what it means for a president to blatantly disregard what a court says. I don’t think we’re quite there yet,’ Brown continued. ‘But we might be there tomorrow, or next week.’” 

###