It’s easy to describe California’s steady stream of lawsuits against the Trump administration—16 so far this year and at least 120 during his first term—as political grandstanding. The state is dominated by Democrats, who are opposed the GOP president’s policies so they are using whatever tools they have to gum up the works. Most of the federal briefs filed by California during the Biden administration supported the Democratic president’s objectives.
California isn’t unique in this regard. Texas’ Republican attorney general filed at least 100 lawsuits against the Biden administration and we can’t find many examples of it filing any similar lawsuits during either Trump term. Although this process at times appears unseemly, we celebrate the underlying system of federalism that enables it. The founders provided states with independent powers as a means to check the power of the national government and protect our liberties.
It’s hard to make a blanket judgment. Some lawsuits are legitimate, as they defend the prerogatives of state authority (for good or ill) and others seem designed to garner headlines. As CalMatters explained in its extensive summary of these cases, California is filing lawsuits at double the rate as during Trump’s first term and it had a fairly high success rate (winning two-thirds of its cases).
Most involve the disbursement of federal aid, although a few target broader principles. We’re most sympathetic to the latter (provided they intrude on state authority) given our skepticism toward the system whereby taxpayers send money to Washington, only to have some doled back to state governments. We rarely support these programs and believe states should directly handle most matters.
For instance, California is involved in multi-state lawsuits challenging Trump’s cutbacks in science-research grants to universities that embrace diversity programs; the tying of disaster aid and transportation funding to immigration enforcement; and the withholding of education funds to states that implement diversity programs.
Some of these suits raise legitimate questions about congressional authority, but when the feds send states money they have the right to set conditions. We’re not particularly sympathetic lawsuits that challenge the administration’s cuts to AmeriCorps, the Department of Health and Human Services, electric-vehicle charging station grants, and library and museum funding. The connections to state authority are tangential.
California also has joined lawsuits challenging Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, which is a legitimate constitutional issue. We agree with our state’s position that the president cannot unilaterally ignore the Constitution, although it’s not a direct state issue. California also is on the right side of a lawsuit challenging efforts by DOGE (the Department Of Government Efficiency) to access personal information, but again isn’t really a state matter.
California has joined with 13 other states challenging Elon Musk’s exercise of federal power—a case that’s probably moot given Musk’s exit from the government. Again per CalMatters, California is the first state to sue the administration over the president’s use of tariff power. We agree the president is exceeding his authority. These disastrous policies have a direct impact on California.
So it’s a mixed bag. Having states sue the federal government isn’t the most elegant check and balance, but it’s clearly in keeping with the system our founders established. We’re happy to let the courts have the final say.
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