As of today over 130 lawsuits have been filed against early Trump Administration initiatives and actions. A decent chunk of these suits have been filed by state attorneys general, and state AGs have filed amicus briefs in a great many more.
That blue state AGs are suing the Trump Administration with regularity should be no surprise. Red state AGs did much the same thing (albeit with less frequency perhaps) against the Biden Administration. Indeed, it seems a key part of the job description for being an AG these days is a willingness to sue presidential administrations of the other party (or file amicus briefs in defense of a president of the same party).
What is striking when one looks at the various suits filed by state AGs (and many of the cases in which state AGs file amicus briefs) is how few involve true state interests, and even fewer can be understood as defending states as states or preserving the bulwark of federalism. Instead, state AG litigation is increasingly just an element of partisan lawfare--or I so I argue in my latest column for Civitas Outlook.
