California vs. Trump: What it’s like to be the attorneys on the front lines

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 31, 2025 3 AM PT | Kevin Rector

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• Although critics have bemoaned the Democratic response to President Trump as inept, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office has been working around the clock to fight Trump’s policies in court, with some success.

Michael Newman, head of the civil rights enforcement section in California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office, was exhausted.

Newman and his legal team had just worked all weekend, straight through that Monday and overnight into Tuesday on a growing pile of legal challenges to the Trump administration, and were overdue for some sleep.

But on his drive home, he was alerted that the administration “cut half the Department of Education’s workforce,” Newman said. “And it’s like, ‘OK, well ... That’s not happening.’”

The team went back to work, along with others in Bonta’s office, and by Thursday joined with other Democrat-led states to file a new lawsuit to block the firings.

“That’s kind of an idea of what life is like for the litigators,” Newman said. “Just when you think it’s safe to log off from your laptop, you get the text that [says], ‘Did you see this newest order that just came out?’”

For months now, President Trump’s pace of pronouncements, executive orders and dramatic policy shifts has been so swift, their reach so sweeping, that many Trump critics have felt overwhelmed and alarmed. They have also bemoaned the Democratic response as inept, haphazard and ineffective, particularly in Congress.

But since Trump’s January inauguration, attorneys in Bonta’s office — and in the offices of Democratic attorneys general nationwide — have been in an all-out sprint to keep up and push back. They’ve been carefully planning for even longer, including by reviewing litigation from Trump’s first term; listening to Trump’s promises on the campaign trail; assessing lawsuits against the...

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But on his drive home, he was alerted that the administration “cut half the Department of Education’s workforce,” Newman said. “And it’s like, ‘OK, well ... That’s not happening.’”

Fun times!

[Prince of Space]

I certainly hope the leftist media reports so glowingly about GOP lawsuits when we have a progressive POTUS again.

[jcon40]

State of Calif attorneys fighting issues that are 70/30 or 80/20 popular with the public and the LA Times tries to paint them as hero’s.

Sheesh.

Keep at it leftist idiots. Calif is getting redder every day.

[dljordan]

“What it’s like to be the attorneys on the front lines”

Over the top men and bring your briefcases.

[PGalt]

“offices of Democratic attorneys general...”

Exclusionary, divisive collective, Bad collective.

[VanShuyten]

He’s just aiming for a $5,000/hr partnership or the governor’s mansion by keeping his name in the news.