Democratic states brace for Trump by launching defense of Biden policies

Source: Yahoo! News/Reuters

Updated Thu, January 16, 2025 at 5:47 PM EST


(Reuters) -Democratic states' attorneys general launched a legal bid this week to defend Biden administration policies on immigration, the environment and guns, just days before Donald Trump takes office on Monday. Trump has vowed to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally, roll back environmental rules and sweep away Biden transgender policies.

His Republican Party controls Congress, as it did when Trump took office in 2017 for his first term. On Wednesday, AGs from more than a dozen states, including California, New Jersey and Michigan, asked a federal judge to let them take on the role of defending a Biden rule providing health insurance to immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

A group of Republican attorneys general had sued in August to block the rule and the case was being defended by the Department of Justice. "These are really important rules that protect or benefit our residents, and there's a strong likelihood that (Trump's) department of justice won't defend them," New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin told Reuters.

Similar coalitions of AGs moved to intervene in cases to defend Biden rules related to the environment, gun dealers and devices known as "forced reset triggers" that allow firearms to fire more rapidly.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/democratic-states-brace-trump-launching-205941702.html