President-elect Donald Trump will enter the White House with a Republican-controlled Congress, and to fight him, Democrats will borrow from the GOP and ready legal suits, according to The New York Times.
Former attorney general Greg Abbott, now the governor of Texas, often told crowds "I go to the office in the morning, I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home."
Now Democrats may say the same about Trump.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has already begun an investigation into Trump's charitable foundation over possible violations of state law. His fellow AG Maura Healey of Massachusetts joined him in investigating Trump's choice of Secretary of State, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, for allegedly misleading investors and the public and the threat posed by climate change.
"Donald Trump plans to roll back much of the progress we've made in Massachusetts and as a nation," Healey wrote in an email Tuesday to supporters, The Boston Globe reports. "A lot of people are asking, 'What can be done?' When the federal government overreaches, state attorneys general have an enormously important role to play. The People's Lawyer is the first line of defense against illegal action by the federal government and I won't hesitate to take Donald Trump to court if he carries out his unconstitutional campaign promises."
President Barack Obama has faced dozens of lawsuits from attorneys general in Texas, Virginia, Florida, and Oklahoma, where state attorney general Scott Pruitt attempted to gun Obama's clean-energy regulations.
Pruitt was recently tapped by Trump to head the Environmental Protection Agency in his administration.
Schneiderman previously led the lawsuit against Trump University, eventually landing a $25 million settlement, and called Pruitt "an agent of the oil and gas industry" upon his selection as EPA head.
State attorneys general first banded together during Bill Clinton's administration, when nearly every state's top lawyer joined in a suit against the tobacco industry.
Under President George W. Bush, a group of AGs from liberal states fought to force the Bush administration to regulate greenhouse gas. They won a Supreme Court decision that allows states to more easily sue the federal government, according to the Times.
"Life just got a lot more exciting for those of us at the state level who are now the first line of defense," Schneiderman told the Times.
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