Democratic state attorneys general are bracing for legal battles with Trump’s return to power

“We have been preparing for months, in some cases years, for the possibility of a Trump administration 2.0,” Bonta said.

For Democrats, that work will take place urgently and anxiously in January, once Trump is sworn in again. Bonta is far from alone in his preparation for that moment: Many of the 25 Democratic state attorneys general who will be in office next year have invested time and resources to prepare for a second Trump term.

Several attorneys general were reluctant to discuss specific plans, saying they wanted to see what the Trump administration would do first. But they studied his past actions and consulted with attorneys general who served in his last term.

The day after the election, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark recalled, “I said, ‘Today we grieve, tomorrow we plan.’ Except for me, because I was already planning.”

So was Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who said she and a group of Democratic attorneys general met before the election to work on “contingency planning.”

“My eyes are wide open that this is a president-elect, along with some people he nominated to serve. . . that (doesn’t) respect the rule of law,” Campbell said. “They’re demonizing immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community, and we have an obligation to stand up for our constituents.”

With Democrats ousted from power in Washington, state Democrats are poised to take the lead in opposing Trump’s agenda. State attorneys general are the first — and perhaps the best — cross-party vetting of Trump policies they believe may violate the law.

Democratic attorneys general played the same role during the first Trump administration, filing hundreds of lawsuits challenging actions such as his attempt to block travelers from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, which was blocked but ultimately supported by Supreme Court.

Collectively, they have achieved a high success rate, winning more than 83 percent of their cases against the Trump administration, according to Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University who tracks the legal work of attorneys general.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said, “We are more prepared than we were at this point in 2016.”

“We were successful in his first term because he broke the law so often,” he said. “If he does this again, I predict we’ll be successful again.”

Still, Nolette predicted the overall environment could be worse for Democrats than it was during the first Trump administration. Trump’s allies have also planned and are ready to take drastic measures — such as stripping away birthright citizenship, which is reportedly under consideration.

Administration staff are expected to be more aligned with Trump this time around, and the federal courts may also be a more receptive audience. Trump has appointed more than 200 justices, and the Supreme Court is now firmly in control of its conservative majority. “Agencies will be more tied to Trump’s agenda and will be more prepared to defend (their policies) in court,” Nolette said.

Many of the attorney general’s successful challenges during his first term centered on violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the process of writing and amending federal agency regulations. Judges have often found that the first Trump administration’s willingness to quickly roll back a variety of rules established by the Obama administration led to violations.

Asked about the prospect of challenges from Democratic attorneys general, Sen. Mike Lee, Republican of Utah and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he expects more challenges to the Administrative Procedures Act. “As far as what else he might bring, it’s hard to say,” Lee said.

In response to an inquiry, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him the mandate to carry out the promises he made in the campaign. He will deliver.”

Indeed, many Democratic officials are wary of the message delivered by Trump’s performance — a popular vote victory as well as a sweep of key battleground states — and fear the perception that they are working to stop his agenda before he takes over. the mandate.

“I don’t wake up every day and I’m dying to sue the president of the United States,” said Platkin, the New Jersey attorney general. “He has the right to implement his political agenda as he sees fit for the country. What he has no right to do is violate the laws and the Constitution of the United States.”

Still, attorneys general expect Trump to provide plenty of opportunities for court challenges.

Allies of the incoming administration have been unusually specific in outlining what they might pursue. Every attorney general who spoke to the Globe cited Project 2025, the 900-page plan for a second Trump term presented by the Heritage Foundation think tank, as a kind of study guide.

The document, written by Trump loyalists but disavowed by Trump during the campaign, set Democrats up for a specific but potentially massive fight over reproductive rights. Project 2025 explains how an administration could use an obscure 19th-century law called the Comstock Act, which regulates what can be sent through the mail, to ban abortion-inducing drugs.

Clark, whose state of Vermont strongly supports abortion rights, said he is watching the issue closely. “Whatever tricks they try to pull, I’ll be there,” she said, echoed by other attorneys general.

Trump and his top allies have also spoken at length about their plan to launch a mass deportation program for undocumented immigrants, which has also come up frequently as a potential target for litigation from Democratic attorneys general.

A number of challenges in other policy areas likely await if Trump follows through on his promises, such as eliminating the federal Department of Education or rolling back federal gun safety rules, Platkin said.

Campbell said he expects tackling other issues that could be at the forefront of battles with the federal government — climate policy, affordability, gun violence prevention — will be a “continuation of the work” the state was doing before Trump’s election.

Changes in the federal administration, Campbell predicted, could make her office’s work “a little more reactive than it used to be.” But, she added, “we’re not going to let this new administration consume everything we do.”

Further complicating the jobs is a lingering question about who will lead the federal Justice Department as attorney general, overseeing the administration’s broad response to state legal challenges. Trump’s top pick, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew his nomination Thursday amid scrutiny of allegations that he paid for sex with underage girls.

While the nature of Trump’s team is changing, his nature is anything but, in the eyes of Democratic attorneys general.

What Democrats have convinced themselves, Bonta said, is that “Trump can’t help himself.”

“He will be acting outside his constitutional and legal jurisdiction,” he said. “And it takes California and other Democratic attorneys general to be there to stop him when he does.”

Tal Kopan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Sam Brodey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow L @sambrodey. Anjali Huynh can be reached at [email protected].