When Donald Trump issued a ban on travelers from some Muslim-majority countries just a week into his presidency, Democratic attorneys general were caught off guard. They hadn’t expected the policy, long promised by Trump on the campaign trail, to materialize so quickly.
Over the course of a few days, they scrambled to sue to stop the executive order, setting off four years of intense hostility between top Democratic lawyers and a Republican White House.
Now, Democratic attorneys around the country are already gearing up for the possibility of a second Trump administration by beginning to map out an aggressive legal strategy to fight him again in court — this time with a fresh sense of urgency.
Democratic attorneys general are exploring hiring outside experts and dispatching staff to study areas of the law anticipated to come under attack, like reproductive health, immigration and the environment.
They are identifying staff members best equipped to fight assertions of executive privilege — which Trump invoked in his most high-profile controversies — and states best positioned to lead bigger cases.
And they are scrutinizing Project 2025, the 900-page blueprint from The Heritage Foundation that lays out a conservative agenda for the next Republican presidency.
The early but serious preparations are an acknowledgment that a second Trump presidency would entail these lawyers filing lawsuit after lawsuit against the federal government, to mitigate what they view as a significant threat to democracy and individual rights.