THE FIREHOSE OF Trump administration actions has not slowed down one bit since blue state attorneys general last month touted their efforts to push back on what they see as dramatic executive overreach.
Speaking before a group of Democratic members of Congress on Monday, the top state prosecutors from Massachusetts, Minnesota, Illinois, and New Jersey laid out their litany of lawsuits over the last six months. A coalition of about two dozen Democratic attorneys general have fought the administration, often in New England federal courts, over issues including National Institutes of Health funding for medical research, the ability of Harvard University to enroll foreign students and defend its tax status, consumer protection policy, endangered green energy options like offshore wind, and immigration policy including birthright citizenship.
Campbell identified both birthright citizenship and the due process violations of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as two major areas of concern.
Both Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk and Milford High School student Marcelo Gomes da Silva were arrested off the streets by federal agents, who Campbell noted were masked and unidentified.
“ICE and local authorities would have you or have us believe that they were doing it all to promote public safety, which is total nonsense,” Campbell said. “They were doing it to create fear in our communities and they’re continuing to do that.”
Along with filing lawsuits, Campbell said she and other state authorities have put out guidance for people on what to expect in interactions with ICE, as well as connecting them with attorneys. While Öztürk and Gomes have been released, Campbell said, their cases indicate a troubling indifference to the due process rights enshrined in the 14th Amendment and the rights of free expression.
The “spotlight forum” was a joint hearing brought by Democratic US representatives and senators. Without control over either chamber of Congress, the series of subject-specific special hearings is something of an attempt to highlight Democratic action at a time when the president is wielding executive power in ways that may infringe on the “power of the purse” granted to Congress by the country’s founding documents.
Exercises of presidential authority, in any given administration, often prompt a deeply partisan response. As was the case in May, with a gathering of New England attorneys general, Campbell told lawmakers “sadly it is only Democratic AGs that are standing up in this moment in time.”
While congressional Republicans have largely backed President Donald Trump’s actions on tariffs, budget slashing, and broadsides against diversity initiatives, some disagreement is rising around the president’s decision to involve the United States in military strikes against Iran without congressional approval.
This leaves state attorneys general with a heavy responsibility, lawmakers said.
Attorneys general and lawmakers noted that the Trump administration has received blistering ruling from judges appointed by both parties, including Reagan appointee US District Judge John Coughenour, who blocked the president’s order purporting to end birthright citizenship for children of parents in the country illegally.
“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is,” Coughenour told a Justice Department attorney. “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”
Another Reagan nominee, US District Judge William Young, last week ordered the National Institutes of Health to reinstate hundreds of research grants slashed centered around themes of gender and sexuality, Covid-19 and vaccines for the disease, or health disparities.
Campbell said she is careful about “defining how we’re winning, because I never want to discount the real harm that people are suffering and experiencing.”
A missed clinical trial can mean life or death for a patient, she said. The damage caused by funding cuts, attacks on medical and higher education institutions, and trade uncertainty ripple out into the broader Massachusetts economy, Campbell added, noting the impact on people’s ability to live and receive care.
Massachusetts General Brigham is the largest recipient of NIH funding, Campbell said, and has had to make significant program cuts. The cuts are impacting research on antibodies, she said, and halting clinical trials.
The lower courts have stalled some of the sweeping presidential actions, which some Republicans claim is an unacceptable use of judicial power, but the end result once the Supreme Court weighs in on Trump’s actions is far from certain.
As the attorneys general testified, the Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling lifting an order from Boston-based US District Judge Brian Murphy requiring that migrants set for deportation to so-called “third countries” get a “meaningful opportunity” to tell federal officials they are at risk of torture at their new destination.
Laid out before them, the four state prosecutors said, is a broad attack on the rule of law. At stake are a functioning economy and a responsive government.
Explaining the magnitude of the attacks is critical, Campbell said.
“I’ve been telling folks, regardless of how you feel about the 14th amendment, pick the amendment that you like,” she said, “because they can come after that one too.”
