State lawmakers will gavel in a particular session Monday targeted on a proposed $25-million litigation fund to reply to President-elect Donald Trump’s anticipated assaults on California insurance policies on civil rights, local weather change and abortion entry.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has requested the Legislature to approve the funding for the Division of Justice and different businesses so the state can file lawsuits towards the federal authorities and defend towards litigation from the Trump administration.
“California is a tent pole of the nation — from the financial system to innovation to defending and investing in rights and freedoms for all individuals. We’ll work with the incoming administration and we wish President Trump to reach serving all People,” Newsom mentioned in a press release Sunday. “However when there’s overreach, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are focused, we are going to take motion. And that’s precisely what this particular session is about — setting this state up for fulfillment, no matter who’s within the White Home.”
Legislative Democrats have to this point responded to Newsom’s request with two payments that shall be thought-about as a part of the particular session.
Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) launched laws to put aside $25 million for authorized charges plus an extra $500,000 to cowl the prices of “preliminary case preparation.”
“Whereas we at all times hope to collaborate with our federal companions, California shall be able to vigorously defend our pursuits and values from any illegal motion by the incoming Trump Administration,” mentioned Gabriel, chair of the Meeting Price range Committee, in a press release. “We all know from President-elect Trump’s statements — and from the greater than 120 lawsuits that California filed in the course of the first Trump Administration — that we should be ready to defend ourselves. We’re not going to be caught flat-footed.”
If accepted, Newsom’s workplace mentioned, the $25-million authorized fund wouldn’t solely “assist safeguard essential funding for catastrophe aid, well being care packages, and different very important service” for tens of millions of Californians however would additionally present authorized funding to guard abortion entry, local weather change insurance policies, LGBTQ+ rights and catastrophe funding.
The Democratic governor referred to as for the particular session of the Legislature within the wake of Trump’s election victory final month, saying that in his first time period within the White Home, the previous president modified federal insurance policies in ways in which harmed California and its residents.
Newsom mentioned on the time that his administration anticipated that the incoming president might search to restrict entry to abortion medicine, pursue a nationwide abortion ban, dismantle clear air and water environmental protections, repeal the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals program and withhold federal catastrophe response funding, amongst different guarantees Trump made in the course of the marketing campaign.
The governor’s transfer is basically symbolic: Lawmakers are prone to move the laws on the similar velocity as they’d with out the particular session. Nevertheless it was seen by some as a method of focusing the state Legislature’s consideration on Newsom’s precedence of defending towards Trump. Republicans had been fast to dismiss the transfer as political theater.
Within the days that adopted Trump’s 2024 election, Newsom signaled that he deliberate to wage an aggressive and extremely seen marketing campaign to defend the state from the Trump White Home.
Over a four-year stretch that resulted in 2021, California filed 122 lawsuits difficult then-President Trump’s authority to alter federal insurance policies on immigration, healthcare, training, gun management, client safety, the census, the U.S. Postal Service and civil rights points.
However extra not too long ago, the governor has sought to tone down his rhetoric and reshape the California-vs.-Trump narrative he set in movement, telling The Instances in an interview that the particular session is “round pragmatism” and “about preparedness.”
“We’d be fools to not get on high of this earlier than January,” he mentioned.
Newsom and legislative leaders have repeatedly mentioned that they’re able to work with the incoming president.
On Monday, lawmakers are scheduled to assemble within the Senate and Meeting chambers to be sworn in. Legislators usually depart Sacramento after the ceremony to spend the vacations of their districts earlier than returning initially of the yr.
Lawmakers count on to start listening to and voting on the particular session laws once they come again on Jan. 6. Newsom desires to signal the payments into legislation earlier than Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Instances workers author Taryn Luna contributed to this report.