California's Legal Skirmishes Leave Trump Lawyers 'Punch Drunk'

LOS ANGELES, CA — It’s no secret that there’s little love lost between the Golden State and the Commander In Chief. California delivered President Donald Trump a stinging rejection in 2016 by more than 3 million votes, and he returned the favor by calling the state “out of control” and threatening to withhold wildfire emergency funding.

But the real battle between the president and the nation’s most populous state isn’t taking place at the ballot box or even on Twitter. It’s happening in the courts, and one side is taking a drubbing. Leading the Trump “resistance,” especially on issues such as environmental protection, California has taken the administration to court more times in two years than Texas did in Obama’s eight years in office, according to the nonprofit news outlet CALMatters. Ultimately, California has sued the Trump Administration roughly 49 times.

The Los Angeles Times this week broke down the state’s lawsuits and found at least 24 of the cases involve environmental issues such as the use of pesticides, oil drilling and public land use. According to the Times, the Trump administration has yet to prevail in an environmental legal battle with California. The state won 15 cases — 10 outright and five where the Trump administration backed down. Nine cases are still pending, and one case yielded a mixed result with the judge ordering the federal government to consider the damage to the environment before reversing a moratorium on coal sales on public land, the Times found.

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra is feeling confident about his record against Trump.

“When you’ve got these environmental rules, so much of it is underpinned by the science. And it so often is the case that the Trump administration can’t produce the science,” he told the Times.

As a result, the Trump administration is dialing back its assault on the environment, he added.

“Like any fighter, you get to the point where you become punch drunk from all the blows,” he added. “We’ve had a great number of victories in our environmental lawsuits against the Trump administration, and after a while when you get punched so much and the blows land, you do slow down.”

Support for California’s strategy of legal resistance is divided along party lines, naturally. Democrats largely see the strategy as a bulwark against federal overreach and the assault on the environment. Republicans accuse of Becerra of politicizing his office for partisan gain, CALmatters reported.

But some experts warn that the administration has learned hard lessons from early defeats. Much of the administration’s legal failures have stemmed from hasty regulatory rollbacks early on in the administration. Expect a more prepared legal adversary in the latter half of Trump’s presidency, they warn.

The administration has certainly been getting a lot of practice in the courtroom. CALmatters cites a report by Marquette University political scientist Paul Nolette, who found that states have filed 71 joint lawsuits against the administration in just two years — 10 more than all the state challenges filed against the White House during Obama years.

As more cases wind their way through the courts, they’ll encounter more and more judges appointed by Trump. The Trump agenda may have faced unprecedented legal setbacks, but it’s also had an unprecedented track record for appointing conservative judges. Trump has already appointed 96 judges, whereas Obama appointed only 78 during his eight years in office, the Heritage Foundation reported.

Some of those judges can be expected to hear upcoming cases about California’s right to set its own emission standards as well the Trump administration’s challenges to the Clean Air Act and efforts to expand offshore oil drilling.