How State Attorneys General are Taking the Fight to Trump

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I wanted to try to do a hopeful episode. The world look pretty grim right now, and many of us feel discouraged. The unlawful and authoritarian actions of the Trump administration keep coming at a relentless pace, and it can be difficult to see any reasons for optimism. It can also be lonely. Someone mentioned to me recently that, in times as dark as these, we need friends, but we also need comrades. We need people who share a common purpose in defending liberalism and who are working, alongside us, to fight back against those who threaten it.

Which is why I'm so happy today to welcome my friend—and, in the sense above, comrade—Carolyn Fiddler to the show. She’s Director of Communications at the Democratic Attorneys General Association, and an expert in state politics. We talk about what attorneys general are doing to challenge the worst of Trump's policies, and how they've already found some success. And we look ahead to future challenges and the tactics the legal system offers to protect liberal institutions from the forces of the populist right.

Produced by Landry Ayres. Podcast art by Sergio R. M. Duarte. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Transcript

Note: This transcript is machine generated, so it might contain some errors.

Aaron Powell

Before we get into the details of what's happening in the present moment, I'll start by asking maybe a dumb question. What is a state attorney general and what does one do?

Carolyn Fiddler

That is not even close to a dumb question. State level politics tends to be a little esoteric, especially anything under the level of governor. And I get that as someone who's been up to her eyeballs in state politics for pretty much her whole life. I'm still very sympathetic to normal people and the way they see the world. And I love that for them and kind of envy them sometimes. But state attorneys general have a whole host of responsibilities. Basically, the short version is they're the people's lawyer. In most states, they're elected. In a few states, they're appointed. But in the vast majority of states, they are elected. And their responsibilities are everything from most states, they have criminal prosecution authority in some cases. In some states, they have full prosecutorial authority when it comes to criminal things. So it varies a little.

But by and large, they are standing up for the people of their state in court. have, the state attorneys general, just to take it way back to the 90s, state attorneys general were the ones who gave us the huge tobacco settlement. That was their just monumental doing. They're the ones who brought us, brought the Sacklers to justice basically in the opioid epidemic. So that's the kind of thing they do. They do consumer protection. They help.

They help fight price gouging after natural disasters. And they protect people's rights in their states. If someone does something that runs afoul of a state law, the state constitution, they are there to see justice done. And they also swear an oath to the US Constitution. And they are there to make sure everyone's rights under that constitution are protected.

Aaron Powell

So does this mean then that in the current environment, if the federal government is doing something that violates the rights of the states, violates the laws that the states are subject to and so on, these are the men and women leading the charge against it?

Carolyn Fiddler

That's exactly right. That is what they are doing. A lot of, I've definitely, as someone who takes in a lot of news and media, I've certainly seen a lot of governors come out and, you know, stand up to Trump. It's important for people to know that their elected officials are standing up for them. So that's good. But in terms of where the rubber beats the road in these states, it's the attorneys general who are filing these lawsuits and fighting back against the things that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing. On top of their day-to-day duties, protecting folks in their states. So a lot of nights and weekends are going on in Democratic attorneys general offices.

Aaron Powell

So we'll talk about what the Democratic attorneys generals are doing, but how partisan is what's happening now to protect American citizens in the states from the, you know, I don't think it's a controversial claim to say the wildly illegal activities of the Trump administration. Like, is this something where it really is just the Democratic attorney general standing up, attorneys general standing up, or are there, is there any resistance on the Republican side?

Carolyn Fiddler

If there is resistance on the Republican side, they have been awfully quiet about it and certainly have not filed any lawsuits. In fact, a bunch of Republican attorneys general have stood up in support of Trump's attack on birthright citizenship, which a judge has already blocked thanks to the lawsuit that state attorneys general, Democratic state attorneys general brought. So yeah, despite the fact that these harms are impacting Republican states and Democratic states alike, Republican attorneys general are not standing up on behalf of their citizens. They're not fighting to, they're not fighting against, say , the dismantling of the Department of Education, which is gonna impact every state in terms of like special needs students and just overall funding and making sure everyone has the same access to education. A lot of people kind of, I think what the Department of Education does is a little esoteric as well.

Because states do administer their own education systems, but they get a lot of support from the Department of Education at the federal level. And when that support goes away, states are going to be stuck holding the bag, including Republican states. And there's going to be a lot of funding holes to plug that no one wants to, you know, move money around or raise taxes to do.

Aaron Powell

Yeah, I think that's just somewhat aside from the topic of the attorneys general, but I think this is an important point for listeners of this show who might say like, well, but you know, I want to reduce the size of these federal agencies. I want to reduce the scope of them. I think that there are better alternatives, so on and so forth, but that is different from what's happening right now. So if we abolish the Department of Ed tomorrow,

It is not that all of the things that it was doing that people want done will be the day after tomorrow taken up by other high quality sources that just happen to be more efficient and so on, but rather that you're just breaking the system. And so it, even from a libertarian cost cutting smaller government standpoint, this is...

This is a particularly harmful way to do it if it accomplishes it at all, because it's not even clear that any of this stuff is reducing the size of government or spending or any of it.

Carolyn Fiddler

Right. Yeah, there's no sort of accounting of cost savings. like, you everyone wants governments to be more efficient. No one wants governments to do waste. That's a universal thing. That's not controversial. But that is, that's what Trump and Musk say they're doing. They're just running around and wrecking things. For the sake of wrecking things, it almost seems like, but there is a diabolical underpinning to all of this in terms of a larger far right wing agenda, but I feel like that's a slightly separate conversation. But yeah, what they're doing is not making anything more efficient. It's not reducing waste and fraud at all. It's just making, it's just going to hurt a lot of people. It's already hurting a lot of people. Our attorneys general have been having these, these community impact hearings, these town halls where they've been talking to just normal humans, been coming up to mics and being like, I'm a veteran who was employed by the federal government and now I have no job and also my veteran services, the medical care I rely on, is also disappearing. So the blows keep coming from all directions for everyone it seems like.

Aaron Powell

Are their town halls getting the same, I guess call it engagement or just emotiveness and attention that because we keep seeing, you see these videos of like Congress, like members of Congress getting run out of rooms or if they're like Democratic members of Congress, you know, the town halls are much more packed and lively than they typically are. Are we seeing a similar thing with the AG?

Carolyn Fiddler

Absolutely. A lot of attorneys general are doing town halls like just themselves in their states and those events are packed. People are worried, they're scared and they, you know, they want to come and understand and help understand what their attorney general is doing to support them to fight back to help them. And also it gives these attorneys general an opportunity to hear from folks in their communities who are harmed. Like some people call up the offices, some people don't. But

We've also had a couple of these multi attorney general hearings with massive attendance. There's been one in Arizona so far. There was one in Minnesota. Was that last week? What is time anymore? I do not know. But they were both packed and went over time because so many people want to get up and share their stories and help and make sure that these folks understand how they're being hurt by this. And this is helpful for attorneys general because

They are filing these suits on behalf of their citizens, on behalf of their states. And these attorneys general usually aren't personally being harmed by this, but it is their job to stand up on behalf of other people. And those other people they're standing up for are making sure their attorneys general know what's happening to them. And there's another one coming up in Denver, actually, in the not too distant future. And we certainly expect a packed house for that as well, because attorneys general are the ones fighting back right now, it seems like. I know they're not the only ones, but they are doing everything literally within their power to hold Trump and Musk accountable and to prevent these harms, to roll back these harms. A lot of federal employees have been rehired or maybe they haven't based on what the government is actually doing in response to these court orders, but that's a little separate. But yeah, there's a lot of energy out there around, and just normal people caring about what their elected officials are doing for them and showing up at these town halls and making sure that their elected officials know what they think of what they are or are not doing.

Aaron Powell

Is it the case, you know, we think about so you can have town halls for your lawmakers and town halls for the attorney generals and what like what they're each capable of right now in terms of, you know, we're watching the country descend into like definitionally fascist authoritarianism and and the it feels like there's essentially more potential to mitigate harms by the attorneys general right now in a lot of cases because the lawmakers, the Democrats are in a minority in both houses. They can stand up, there are things that they can do, but ultimately if it comes down to party line votes, they don't have the votes to stop things or to pass things that will ameliorate some of these problems. But it feels like the federal courts are a friendlier environment in terms of pushing back on fascism and illegality by the federal government. And so I guess the question is like, is there more kind of when you talk about the rubber beats the road and actually helping. It feels like right now as of today we may be overemphasizing what the lawmakers can do and not paying as much attention as we should to the lawsuits and other mechanisms that the courts can use to at least put a stop to the worst of the stuff. Again, assuming we'll bracket the question of whether they obey court orders.

Carolyn Fiddler

That's a really good point. Although I would say that even being in the minority in the US Senate, Democrats still have a fair amount of power there to block things. But not to proactively do all that much because they are in the minority, absolutely. I imagine they're awfully frustrated. But also like, it's not just about passing laws, which a lot of laws have been passed and are very much in place and the Trump administration is ignoring them anyway. So it's not just about that. It's about showing the American people that you understand where they're coming from and what they're scared of and what's happening to them. Walking around in DC is a hard way to do that. It's Republicans and Democrats alike, you know should be having these town halls. I know the Republican campaign arm has told its members to not have any more town halls, which is pathetic But Democrats having these town halls are hearing from people who who want them to stand up and fight for them Whatever that looks like that looks different in Congress than it does at the state level and that's fine It should everyone has different things to do. But as a longtime state politics nerd everything happens at the state level all the time very quickly. You know, maybe this is one way of helping people understand that, that there is a lot that happens that people don't pay attention to at the state level, even though a lot of these lawsuits are very federal in nature. But it's the state attorneys general who are looking out for people and taking this fight to the courts.

Aaron Powell

Yeah, that was always one of the things that I think it was important to point out when people were comparing what could happen in the US to what had happened in other countries that have fallen into, call it competitive authoritarianism, as the US isn't immune to that, but federalism helps.

The fact that so much happens at the state level and that so many of the states are not on board with the Trumpist Project 2025 agenda gives us mechanisms that don't exist in countries that don't have a federalist system the way that we do.

Carolyn Fiddler

Hopefully it's our saving grace because it's scary. I get up in the morning and I'm literally very happy that I get to go to the Democratic Attorney General office every day and do what I do to help support REGs and the work that they're doing and help folks understand this work that's going on. It's lawyering at the end of the day, and that is technical, that is weedy, that has a lot of Latin and whatnot. It can be really hard to understand, and that's fine. Normal people should not have to bother with knowing what ex post facto means and that's okay. What a TRO actually does and what that means that's good and okay but also folks need to know how they are being helped and supported by these attorneys general. So that's a big part of what I do and I'm really happy and grateful that I get to do it.

Aaron Powell

Then, shorn of the legal jargon, what are some of the things that are being done right now?

Carolyn Fiddler

Well, to date, today being the end of March, 11 lawsuits have been filed by attorneys general. A lot of other lawsuits have been filed too by other groups and, you know, on behalf of folks who have been harmed and have standing that way. But attorneys general also have standing a lot of these cases for, you know, standing up for the Constitution. That was the very first lawsuit that got filed the day after inauguration was to counter the executive order that purported to eliminate birthright citizenship even though it's very clearly spelled out in the United States Constitution. So that was move one and Attorneys General very quickly got that order blocked because it's just so obviously unconstitutional. And since then they've filed lawsuits fighting against these anti-transgender executive orders. They have taken action against federal employees being harmed and just fired for the sake of firing them. They have, what's another one? They were very quickly, very fast out of the gate fighting that, was it an OMB memo that just froze federal funding for all of these things and they're like, you can't do that. And they got relief in that case as well. None of these cases have kind of reached the end of their life cycles. That's another thing about lawsuits. They happen in stages and they take time, but a lot of them have been blocked in the short term because that is something that courts get to do as well. 

So a lot of these harms are being mitigated because of these lawsuits that attorneys general have filed. Cuts to the specific cuts to healthcare research was another lawsuit they filed early on. And they were a very fast allegate to sue a DOGE in Elon Musk for their unauthorized access to treasury systems and a lot of Americans' data.

Carolyn Fiddler

Like they probably have mine somewhere and that stresses me out because I don't want Elon Musk knowing my business and he shouldn't know my business and neither should his cadre of little minions either.

Aaron Powell

So to take that, the access to treasury systems there is like the legal hook, because obviously the states don't control the treasury, the federal treasury.

But so the legal hook there is that it violates data privacy laws that states have, or these federal data privacy laws that then, it's like if Musk gets his hands on your data, you had a legal right to have that data remain private, limited to a certain scope of people within treasury. And so now as a resident of a particular state, Virginia, your rights have been violated, they sue on your behalf.

Carolyn Fiddler

Yeah, that's basically it. That's complicated. But that is essentially the case. And a lot of these blocks that happen, these TROs, these restraining orders, these injunctions that prevent these executive orders from being enforced, a lot of them do cover every one of the country, even though these Republican attorneys general are not enjoying these lawsuits. I live in Virginia, and I have a Republican attorney general who is not fighting for all these federal employees who live here. Over 300,000 federal employees live in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And the attorney general is not doing anything to stand up for them. And that is regrettable. But a lot of these injunctions are nationwide. People who live in states whose attorneys general are not standing up for them are still getting the benefit of the results of these lawsuits, thankfully. Not in every case, sometimes a judge will block an order only in the states that have joined the lawsuit to fight it. And that is, that's awful for the people who live in these states with these attorneys general who are just loyal to Trump and won't stand up for the just very obviously illegal things that he's doing all the time.

Aaron Powell

Yeah, I've thought about Virginia Republicans in particular, because Virginia is a purple state shading into blue because of Northern Virginia and because of the density of Northern Virginia, which is overwhelmingly federal employees who are upset about what's been happening and federal employees are like engaged voters. They tend to be high information voters. They're not the kind of voters who are going to forget about this or who is to blame by the time the next election, state level elections come along. And so it just seems particularly acute in Virginia that these guys are, things aren't going to go well for them in the next election because there's going to be even even republican federal employees don't like losing their jobs or having all their friends lose their jobs or their funding cut and so on like this just I don't know this is one of the baffling things about the current moment is I think the only the only way to make sense of it is if they like think they're not going to lose another election

Carolyn Fiddler

Yes, and that is a slightly an issue all its own for sure, just Virginia, which does have elections this very year. Well, the governor here doesn't have to worry about it because he's a one-termer. All governors in Virginia are one-termers. can run for another term if they let some years pass, but they cannot run for consecutive terms. So Youngkin doesn't care. He could care less. However, the lieutenant governor in Virginia, who is a Republican, is now running for governor. So she should care. And A.G. Meares is running for re-election, so he ought to care. But it seems like they don't care. They're not doing anything. And that will absolutely come back to haunt them at the ballot box. Plus the whole House of Delegates is up this year as well. Just all 100 seats. I suspect Democrats will keep their majority.

You know, I never like to say anything for sure in politics, but unless things change drastically at the federal level, you're right. All those employees and their friends and their loved ones and the contractors whose contracts are at risk because of wild ideas about diversity, equity and inclusion. And yeah, that they're, they're all impacted by the terrible things that Trump and Musk are doing. And they're going to remember.

Aaron Powell

We've had temporary restraining orders on some of the stuff that we're doing. We've had decisions directly against the administration, its policies in other areas. There's appeals ongoing. Some of this stuff is awfully close to the Supreme Court. Some of it is still a ways away. And I think you're, the point you made earlier is an important one that it's, the courts can be a powerful tool, but they're an awfully slow moving one.

Also, how they operate can be opaque, not just in terms of the terminology, but like, there have been instances where a judge declines to, declines to order a temporary restraining order, and there's a lot of anger about it, but you then have like the legal minded people who are like, actually like this was the right decision for the following reasons, they're attempting, you know, they wanna make sure that on appeal this won't get over, like, there's all of this, the law is very complicated and very good lawyering is a highly skilled process. But it creates this level of frustration of like, I'm seeing the administration doing all this crazy stuff. Like I think it was just yesterday there was another executive order essentially instantiating racism as the official historical perspective of the United States and racist biological essentialism an official position. But it's like every damn day, there's more of it. And we hear about these lawsuits, but they're going slowly. So I guess as far as like, reasons for hope, or reasons that did not just be like in a state of despair, have there been actual tangible results of this? So like have bad things actually been stopped right now or have funds been or programs spun up again after Musk did his stuff? Like have we already seen concrete or are we still basically in all of this in a waiting game for it to play out in the courts?

Carolyn Fiddler

We are in a waiting game for many things and some things came to pass very quickly. For instance, the federal funding freeze. A lot of those funds are still not being delivered, unfortunately, but a lot did get unfrozen and got to the states where they are supposed to get to, where they had already been sent. Just hadn't been by Congress. The money hadn't actually gone out the door yet.

So a lot of that did get unfrozen immediately upon that ruling. But not all of it. But some things are still a bit of a waiting game. But the birthright citizenship EO blocking was really important because people are having babies all the time. And to just arbitrarily decide that a child born in the United States is not a United States citizen, despite what the Constitution plainly says is wrong like why are they coming after babies also? But yes all those babies who have been born between that rolling and now citizens huzzah we love that.

Aaron Powell

Yeah, the birthright citizenship thing is... I have been shocked at how willing some legal scholars are to just advance transparently bad, clearly disingenuous, like partisan, hackery arguments in favor of this, and kind of try to create a false narrative that there is a controversy on this simply because a handful of them have claimed that the consensus doesn't exist, when in fact the consensus, as you said, the Constitution is very clear on this. The arguments against birthright citizenship just fall on their face. And I think that's been one of the frustrating things about seeing good lawyering as a way to help us in this troubling time is how many lawyers have capitulated or have become stooges of the regime or have backed down or all of these major law firms now like promising to provide essentially pro bono legal service to the Trump administration over EOs that are just like patently unconstitutional.

Carolyn Fiddler

Which as lawyers, they know this, which makes it even worse.

Aaron Powell

Are you at all optimistic about these suits when they hit the Supreme Court? Because this is another issue that people like on the one hand, there's the easy it's a six three Republican majority therefore the Supreme Court is just in the tank for Trump and will rubber stamp whatever it is he wants to do. That's a you know, that's a fairly common narrative, but it's probably not true.

So I guess, yeah, how optimistic are you that all of these lawsuits that are either going to be filed or in the process of working their way through the courts aren't going to just sputter out with Alito writing a position that just declares Trump like a genuine king?

Carolyn Fiddler

Democrats aren't going to get the results that they want from every lawsuit at the Supreme Court, but I also believe that the Supreme Court is not going to be eager, like all nine of them at some level. Alito and Thomas, I don't know where their brains are. I guess just in a big pile of money that very rich Republican donors are giving them, whatever. But the other seven are very reasonably probably, you know, we can expect that they are not eager to just completely give up the power that they have as Supreme Court justices, which is what would be happening if they just rubber stamped Trump as king and decided that the Constitution, Marbury v. Madison is actually wrongly decided and then just undermines the entire authority of the court forever.

I don't see them doing that. So I think that outcomes are certainly not gonna be universally sunshine and rainbows, but I do believe that the rule of law will actually prevail at the Supreme Court in many of these cases. There are clearly, I don't wanna call them swing votes, they're still very conservative, but I will call them, I don't know, votes in service of reality and preserving their own power. That's a big incentive for a lot of people and they're human, they're no different.

Aaron Powell

That's a critical point for people to keep in mind is that there is, there are partisan leanings of judges and justices. They're chosen, you know, often they're chosen for that or they're elected because they align with the partisan leanings of a majority of the electorate or whatever it is. But ultimately, these people are judges and justices in a system of courts that is nominally a co-equal branch of the government.

The very first case you learn in law school is, you know, in con law is Marbury v Madison. It is foundational. So yes, these judges might be Republican, but they're judges. And they are, as you say, gonna be loath to just give up essentially all of the power of their branch. And this is also where I think that the fact that it's questionable to what extent they have like openly defied court orders versus tried to wiggle out of following court orders. judges can tell what they're doing and it pisses them off. And so I think that's also another thing that Republican justice or Republican judge is going to be upset about the, you know, you're undermining our authority, my branch's authority, and it feels like the federal courts have not gone down the congressional road of being like, please take all my authority, I don't want it at all, but instead are pretty possessive of it.

Carolyn Fiddler

The rulings we've seen so far, think, reflect that absolutely. We definitely have plenty of Republican appointees who have blocked, at least temporarily, a lot of these executive orders because the law is the law and even the most partisan-minded judge, know, went to law school, understands what the law is and what it means and why the role as judge is really important.

And no, they don't want to give that up with good reason. They understand that they have a really important role to play in our United States system of government. So yeah, I don't want to say I'm optimistic, but I have not despaired. Also, I think it's worth noting the links to which the Department of Justice has gone to try and not make it obvious that

It certainly seems like they have openly, they have actually defied court orders, but they are doing all kinds of gymnastics to try and conceal that fact. I'm thinking of the folks who got transported to Venezuela, even after a judge said, hey, don't do that. As long as the Department of Justice is still trying to acknowledge the power and authority of these judges and their rulings.

That means something. We'll see how long that lasts. I'm not a Pollyanna, but I'm hoping.

Aaron Powell

I mean, this whole conversation could sound very naive a year from now. But I am remaining somewhat hopeful that a general commitment to the Constitution is a fairly pervasive cultural feature of much of the government. It's not a feature of the president or the vice president or the president's boss or the cabinet, but.

But as we've seen resignations at DOJ and bureaucrats fighting back or even the military, from enlisted men through officers, upholding the Constitution is very much part of the culture. It's not something that can just be brushed aside because one white nationalist was put in charge.

And I think I am hopeful that what that means is when we get these, when these lawsuits make it up to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court starts saying, no, you have to knock this off. Like this is, you know, even, even.

Even our Republican majority can't figure out a way to get on board with this thing. That there'll be some degree of backing down. You know, like I feel like as of right now, they probably aren't quite ready to just completely disobey the Supreme Court.

Carolyn Fiddler

That's right too. I hope that remains the case. But I think it would just disrupt it. The Trump administration is obviously trying to disrupt American society and government in ways that serve their own interests. But to fundamentally disrupt the nature, the basic nature of our government, the fundamental aspects of it, which includes the Supreme Court, would be

I think, I hope at least it would be a bridge too far, if not for them, then for like every other American who, you know, we're all, know, from whatever the sort of quality of your educational system growing up, you learned about the constitution and why it's important and that it matters. It's how we got the America that we know and mostly love today. And that's not something that people are going to kind of let go lightly.

That's part of our identity as Americans is we have this constitution that creates our government, shapes our government, and decides, you know, tells us what we can and can't do in a very broad way. And that's important. I don't think that even the Trump administration is going to be reluctant to run afoul of that. Elon Musk, not so much. He doesn't care.

Aaron Powell

When you look out at the work that Democratic Attorneys General are undertaking right now, we talked about some of the stuff that's been in process, that's working its way through the courts, but is there anything emerging that you see as particularly hope-worthy? I'm trying to give many episodes of this show, and just anyone who's been paying attention is probably just in this state of despair. Everything has happened.

Most of us knew this was going to be bad when he took office. I don't think very few of us predicted how bad it was going to get, how quickly, like how ambitious they were going to be in their attempts to achieve this fascist authoritarianism. And it feels all very discouraging. And so what I'm asking you, Carolyn,what are the things that excite you? What are the things where you say we're working on this and this gives me hope that that maybe like we can get through this or we can mitigate some of the real harm that that there's something there is like something to fight for because I think there is this kind of doomerism you know each time you post about we post like here's something that could happen or here's or the, you the elections like the, this seat that was flipped in Pennsylvania from a Trump plus 15. Yeah. So you, talk about that, but you always get this litany of people in your replies on blue sky. You know, like, it's just like, what does it matter? They're just going to ignore this. What does it matter that the next elections will be rigged? I just want to give up now. and so we were talking, you know, when I was pitching you to come on the show, was like, I want to do an episode where it's like, here's some people who are fighting. Here's some things that are happening. It's not time to just give up. So what are the things right now that have you the most optimistic or excited?

Carolyn Fiddler

I’m glad you asked. Because there are a lot of things that you know, I don't just get up in the morning glad I get to work with these people who are fighting back. I am but also these folks, they're attorneys and most attorneys can earn more money doing other attorney things than serving as attorney general or their state. It's a state, it's a state job. In the end, it's not going to pay as well as the private sector, the folks who are doing these jobs really want to do these jobs. They care so much about what they do and how they can help the people of their state. And I think that is gorgeous. But that's that's a little, you know, know, flowers and cookies or whatever. One thing I think should give everyone a lot of hope is the fact that Democratic attorneys general were prepared for this when Project 2025 dropped. It was clear that the election was certainly not in the bag for Democrats. And, you know, this was about a year ago now.

Project 2025, even though it had been around a little bit longer, that's when it really started getting some oxygen. People were aware of it. Trump disavowed it. LOL. But Democratic Attorneys General, some of whom had been around from the first Trump administration, saw this document and saw, you know, the possibility of Trump winning election again and said, you know what, we were caught a little flat-footed last time around in terms of no one thought he was going to yada yada. But they were still not even super prepared. They won over 80 % of the lawsuits that they filed against the Trump administration four years ago, eight years ago. What is time? But this time once Project 2025 dropped, they got together. They started convening weekly and they said, all right, we need to be ready for the stuff in here that he is going to do if he wins election.

So they started developing a brief bank. They created the outlines of a lot of lawsuits against the stuff that Project 2025 was gonna do. So they were ready. They still have this brief bank. They talk every day now. And they're also like all friends. Like they all like each other and that's pretty good. Especially when you have to talk every day, it helps.

But yeah, they came into this moment really, really well prepared. And so, you know, when the birthright executive order dropped, they were like, bam, we knew this was coming. Lawsuit, baby. So these folks are smart. They're on top of it. They have been on top of it for over a year now. they, you know, after Election Day, they knew the fights that were coming. They started preparing their offices because they have to do their day to day jobs, you know, just serving people their states, standing up for their rights, protecting them from consumer fraud, protecting their public safety, getting guns off the streets, you name it. They have so many things they have to do anyway, outside of the Trump administration. So they got ready and they got their offices ready to undertake all this extra work. And it's already paying off, and they're going to have to keep at it for quite a while, obviously.