To Combat Trump, Democrats Ready a G.O.P. Tactic: Lawsuits

[mitty14u2]

Source: NYTimes

Mr. Schneiderman — who established himself early as a nuisance to Mr. Trump when he sued him over Trump University, negotiating a $25 million settlement — pounced on the Pruitt selection, calling him “an agent of the oil and gas industry” and promising to push an E.P.A. under Mr. Pruitt to uphold environmental laws. Ms. Healey has also expressed concern about the nominations of Mr. Pruitt and Mr. Tillerson.

The jockeying to begin hostilities with the Trump administration is a measure of how the country’s widening political divide has transformed the offices of state attorneys general into legal laboratories and sharpened them into political scalpels.

They were once primarily local law enforcement figures who rarely pursued issues beyond state borders. But with the growth of their clout and ambition over the last three decades, they have become magnets for lobbyists, campaign donors and other corporate representatives looking to intervene in regulatory policy and tip investigations, a New York Times investigation found in 2014.

Under President Bill Clinton, attorneys general pioneered the major multistate lawsuit that has served as a model for interstate collaboration since, with nearly all the states joining together to win a groundbreaking settlement with the tobacco industry. Liberal states later collaborated to force the E.P.A. under President George W. Bush to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, winning a Supreme Court decision that made it easier for the states to sue the federal government.




Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/nyregion/donald-trump-democrats-lawsuits.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

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Trump is a Habitual Liar, political scalpels should straiten out his tongue, he uses words like a gun to impose his way with whom ever he deals with, let the attorneys talk for the masses that voted for Hillary!

[cstanleytech]

1. Frankly I have wondered more than a few times why no one has tried suing the RNC

and the varies Republican leaders directly for things like gerrymandering districts especially since the varies Republicans have felt OK with suing and harassing varies Democratics via the courts.

[SunSeeker]

2. Sadly, the federal lawsuits will end up in a 5-4 GOP SCOTUS.

That Scalia vacancy will immediately be filled with some GOP troglodyte by February and that kills us.

But, at least for states like California and New York, there is still a litigation route in state court, enforcing these states' own robust environmental laws, consumer protection laws, etc.

[Backwoodsrider]

4. great idea the suprme court is so left leaning

sarcasm off

wake up folks the old way of thinking is what got us here

[SunSeeker]

5. So what do you suggest? Do you not like the state court route?

[Coolest Ranger]

6. I get so sick of

people telling us to wake up but then don't offer any suggestions

[moondust]

3. AG Schneiderman was on "The Last Word"

tonight. He offered the best hope I've heard since the election. The founding fathers apparently anticipated the possibility of a would-be monarch taking over the federal government and so the states ended up with many their own laws with which to fight back.

[NewJeffCT]

7. While the GOP held up a lot of Obama's judge appointments

Enough did get confirmed that I believe Democrats have the majority (even if slight) on almost all the main federal courts.

If they can block via filibuster a Trump SCOTUS nominee for long enough, the 4-4 Supreme Court decisions would then revert back to the federal court decision.

That's if the Democrats have the backbone to stick with a permanent filibuster like Republicans did.