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and rulings to come, as Biden has handed down Adam Piper, then-executive director of the Re-
dozens of executive actions during his first week in publican Attorneys General Association, said his
office. group has spent months playing internal war games
While state attorneys general have regularly chal- and prepping possible hypotheticals for a Biden
lenged federal policies and actions, the practice of win, while still hoping for a Trump victory. “Back
multistate coalitions forming along political lines in September, we started those war games and
to file lawsuits picked up during the Obama ad- emergency preparedness, and really since Nov. 4, 5,
ministration, as Republicans teamed up for suits 6, we’ve been turbocharged in terms of what can be
challenging Obamacare and environmental regula- done to safeguard the most successful era of regu-
tions. latory reform our nation has ever seen, being the
That trend accelerated under Trump, as Demo- last four years under the Trump administration,”
crats filed more than 100 complaints over the he said.
implementation of new policies or the rollback of “We hoped we were going to have four more
existing regulations and policies, like the Deferred years of peace time, four more years of an adminis-
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. tration that respects the rule of law, but we’re ready
Democrats say they’ve won about 80% of those for a fight,” Piper added. Piper has since resigned,
lawsuits, with judges often finding Trump officials after RAGA’s fundraising arm faced backlash over a
violated the Administrative Procedure Act. robocall urging participation in Jan. 6 protests that
The legal challenges have simultaneously boosted culminated in a violent mob at the U.S. Capitol.
the profiles of attorneys general leading the charge: Rutledge, the attorney general for Arkansas, said
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, fre- she and her colleagues are looking at the nominees
quently the public face of the Democrats’ lawsuits Biden is putting forward to lead federal agencies in
against Trump officials, was picked by Biden as his determining which policy areas they might file chal-
nominee to lead the Department of Health and Hu- lenges. The more progressive a nominee is or the
man Services. more willing they are to use executive authorities
Paul Nolette, a professor of political science at to change policy, the more likely Republicans are to
Marquette University, said in an interview before oppose their actions.
the Georgia Senate run-off elections that even if “Ideally, his administration would not overreach,”
Democrats successfully won both races and gained Rutledge said. “Unfortunately, his track record con-
control of the Senate, their lead would be so minimal cerns us as the chief legal officers of our states and to
that Biden is certain to rely on his executive author- ensure states rights are protected, we have to be pre-
ity. Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff pared. And so we are looking at past performance
both successfully defeated their GOP opponents in as well as what issues the former vice president has
the Jan. 5 election, giving Democrats the slimmest talked about, and who he is nominating or looking
of margins in controlling the chamber. to nominate in these key administration posts.”
“I think there’s a lot that Biden is going to have to Nolette, who researches state attorneys general
do through the administrative means, and those can actions, said he expects Republicans to take up the
and will be challenged on a number of grounds,” practice established by Democrats in filing chal-
Nolette said. lenges on a wide range of policy issues. He said that
previously, areas like environmental regulations re-
ceived the most attention in the state suits. While
‘Ready for a Fight’
Republican attorneys general view the incom- he expects Republicans to target environmental ac-
ing Biden administration as an opportunity to fight tions in future complaints, Nolette said Democrats
against what they see as executive overreach, espe- expanded their litigation portfolio to include topics
cially when it comes to hot issues like immigration, like immigration, civil rights and net neutrality.
health care and environmental regulations.
¦ Continued on PAGE 18

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