Author: dailycastsocal

Michael Newman, the leader of the civil rights enforcement section in California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office, was weary. Newman and his legal team had labored throughout the weekend, into Monday and overnight into Tuesday, tackling an increasing number of legal disputes against the Trump administration, and they were in dire need of rest. However, during his drive home, he received news that the administration “slashed half the Department of Education’s workforce,” Newman stated. “And it’s like, ‘Well … that’s unacceptable.’” Senior Assistant Atty. Gen. Michael Newman, center, with members of his Civil Rights Enforcement Section on litigation contesting the Trump administration. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Returning to work, alongside others in Bonta’s office, the team filed a new lawsuit by Thursday to prevent the firings, joining forces with other Democrat-led states. “That’s just a glimpse of what life is like for litigators,” Newman remarked. “Just when you think you can take a break from your laptop, you receive a text saying, ‘Did you catch this latest order that was just issued?’” For months, the pace of President Trump’s announcements, executive directives, and drastic policy changes has been so rapid and extensive that numerous Trump critics have found themselves overwhelmed and uneasy. They have also lamented the Democratic response as inadequate, uncoordinated, and ineffective, especially within Congress. Since Trump’s inauguration in January, attorneys in Bonta’s office—and in the offices of Democratic attorneys general across the nation—have been in a full sprint to keep pace and push back. They’ve been meticulously preparing for a long time, which included reviewing litigation from Trump’s first term; paying attention to Trump’s campaign promises; analyzing lawsuits filed against the Biden administration by conservative states; and examining Project 2025, a controversial strategy for the president’s second term. The outcome has been a barrage of lawsuits contesting Trump’s policies, such as his order claiming to abolish birthright citizenship for children of immigrants born in America, his effort to withhold trillions of dollars in federal funding that Congress had already allocated for programs in California and elsewhere, and his dismissal of federal probationary employees within veterans’ programs, national parks, and other sectors. They have also filed suits to prevent cuts to National Institutes of Health funding for educational institutions and research organizations, the cancellation of K-12 teacher training and preparation grants, billionaire Elon Musk’s significant but informal influence in the federal government, and access to sensitive data managed by his unrecognized Department of Government Efficiency. In addition to their legal actions, Bonta and other Democratic attorneys general have backed challenges against attacks on transgender troops