California lawmakers launch plot to Trump-proof state laws
Gavin Newsom is seeking to fund a court challenge warroom to battle Trump’s expected attacks on civil rights, immigrants, reproductive rights and the environment
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Your support makes all the difference.California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers headed back to the state Capitol Monday to begin steeling themselves for another Donald Trump presidency and to kick off a special session aimed at protecting the state’s progressive policies from his administration.
The Democratic governor, long a Trump foe, is maneuvering to position his huge, powerful state to once again be the center of a resistance effort against Trump extremely conservative agenda.
Newsom is calling on his Democratic allies in the Legislature, who hold supermajorities in both chambers, to approve additional funding to the attorney general’s office to prepare for a robust legal fight against all anticipated federal challenges launched by Trump and the cronies he is already naming to top positions.
Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel on Monday introduced legislation to set aside $25 million for legal fees to respond to potential attacks by the Trump administration on state policies regarding civil rights, climate change, immigration and abortion access.
“While we always hope to collaborate with our federal partners, California will be ready to vigorously defend our interests and values from any unlawful action by the incoming Trump Administration,” Gabriel vowed in a statement.
California sued the first Trump administration more than 120 times with various levels of success.
“We’re not going to be caught flat-footed,” Newsom vowed at a recent news conference.
Trump often depicts California as representing everything he sees wrong in America. Democrats, which hold every statewide office in California and have commanding margins in the Legislature and congressional delegation, outnumber registered Republicans by nearly two-to-one statewide.
Trump called the Democratic governor “New-scum” during a campaign stop in Southern California, and has relentlessly lambasted the Democratic stronghold over its large number of undocumented immigrants, its homeless population and and its thicket of protectionist regulations.
Trump also waded into a water rights battle over the endangered delta smelt, a tiny fish that has pitted environmentalists against farmers and threatened to withhold federal aid to a state increasingly under threat from wildfires.
Before the special session was set to begin, state lawmakers swore in more than two dozen new members and elected leaders for the 2025 legislative session.
Hundreds of people also demonstrated around the Capitol on Monday to urge the Legislature to block Trump’s mass deportation plans. They carried banners reading: “Not one cent for mass deportation” and “MAGA out of California.”
“With the results of the presidential election, we need our state elected officials to use every tool and every resource they have available to them to protect our immigrant Californians,” said protester Deborah Lee.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta vowed that his office will protect the state’s immigration population. In another challenge to Trump, Newsom last week unveiled a proposal to revive a rebate program for electric vehicle purchases if the incoming Trump administration eliminates a federal tax credit for people who buy electric cars, as it’s expected to do. Newsom is also considering creating a backup disaster relief fund for the wildfire-prone state after Trump’s threats to cut off funds.
Bonta also announced legislation Monday aimed at bolstering reproductive rights in the state, including by allowing the attorney general to seek monetary penalties against local governments that infringe on those rights. The proposals are all part of the state’s efforts to safeguard against threats to abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Republican lawmakers blasted Newsom and his Democratic allies over the special session. Rep. Vince Fong, who represents the state’s Central Valley farm belt, said California should work with the incoming Trump administration.
“Gavin Newsom’s actions are tone-deaf to the concerns of Californians who disapprove of the direction of our state and country,” Fong insisted in a video on social media.
California legislators will likely act to protect dozens of laws expected to be targeted by the Trump administration, including one that has made the state a sanctuary for people seeking abortions who live in states where such practices have been severely limited.
California, the nation’s most populous state, was the first to mandate that by 2035 all new cars, pickup trucks and SUVs sold in California be electric, hydrogen-powered or plug-in hybrids. The state also extends state-funded health care to all low-income residents regardless of their immigration status.
Newsom hasn’t provided details about what actions the lawmakers will consider but said he wanted major funding in place before Trump’s inauguration day, Jan. 20. The state spent roughly $42 million in litigation costs during the first Trump administration, officials said.
California successfully clawed back $57 million between 2017 and 2018 after prevailing in a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from imposting immigration enforcement conditions on certain federal law enforcement grants. Another legal victory over the citizenship question in the 2020 census forced the federal government to return $850,000 to the state, according to the attorney general’s office.
“We are positioned, if necessary, to be the tip of the spear of the resistance and to push back against any unlawful or unconstitutional actions by the Trump administration,” said Gabriel, who chairs the budget committee.
Additional reporting by journalists Haven Daley and Sophie Austin from the Associated Press
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