Battles raging from the halls of Congress to street rallies nationwide are challenging President Donald Trump’s vision of America with partisan sound bites and snarky signs. But the strongest revolt may be less raucous, though no less pointed: lawsuits by pro bono lawyers, advocacy groups and state attorneys general.
Less than two weeks into the administration, lawsuits have been filed across the U.S. challenging the president from every angle, including a case over alleged conflicts of interest that violate the Constitution’s " emoluments clause," multistate challenges to Trump’s immigration policies, and a complaint over the new president’s regulatory plans, including his attempt to quash a proposed regulation over disposal of metal dental fillings.
Many more challenges are expected, and both sides are hunkering down for a protracted war, one that promises to inflame already frayed relations between Republicans and Democrats, both in Washington and across the nation.
Courts are “traditionally where people go when they think an executive branch is exercising more power than people think they’re entitled to,” said Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School. “One of the most noteworthy things is the connection between popular outrage and lawsuits.”
Noting demonstrations at San Francisco International Airport, she said, “People were chanting, ‘Let the lawyers in! Let the people out! People are aware of what’s going on in the streets and what’s going on in the courts.”
Swift, Wide-Ranging
The legal challenges to Trump have been unusually swift and wide-ranging, but such ligation isn’t unprecedented. Republican-led states repeatedly sued to block President Barack Obama’s executive orders alleging he was overstepping his authority. Texas sued the Obama administration 48 times over eight years, either alone or with other states, over pollution regulations, protections for gay and transgender citizens, and immigration policy, among other things. One case put on indefinite hold Obama’s plan for cutting the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Cary Coglianese, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, said previous administrations that have tried to upend regulations have struggled to succeed. It is far more effective for Congress to pass legislation to repeal regulations, he said.
“If history is any guide, the resistance will be relatively effective,” Coglianese said. “The regulatory process is deliberately fact-based, expert-driven, transparent and participatory. Those features mean that politicians can’t come in and just turn the regulatory state around on a dime.”
Much of the litigation against the Trump administration is being led by nonprofit advocacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Individual lawyers raced to airports to offer their services to refugees detained by Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order blocking immigration from some Muslim-majority countries.