By Maven Stark and Katie ORR December 18, 2016 Los Angeles, California
A protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Los Angeles last month. Democrat Hillary Clinton drew 61 percent of the vote versus Trump's 31 percent in the country's most populous state. Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images
California Gets Ready To Defy Trump's Washington
Donald Trump is set to become president next month and Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, and California's Democrats believe their state should take the lead in opposing the new administration's priorities.
And they have no interest in calls for national unity.
"We must be defiant whenever justice, fairness, and righteousness require," State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon recently told lawmakers. "Californians do not need healing. We need to fight."
That, of course, translates to: " we will defy and oppose every policy implementation set forth by President Trump. Because we're Democrats and that's what Democrats do when a Republican is in the House.
As for " we don't need healing! ": Let me say that The California Constitution is in need of reform because it's being re-written in Spanish.
" Healing " also means different things to different people: For instance, the bill put forth by Rep. Luis Gutierrez is decried by the right as blanket amnesty. Those on the left see it as punitive and humiliating because it forces people to pay fines and learn English. So where you are politically has a big effect on what those three little words mean to you. The Nativo Lopez school of activism is demanding total legalization plus a "streamlined system for all future waves of migration", which is basically just erasing the borders. The fringes are so extreme in this argument that they twist the words into pretzels to make their points.
Rendon's message was greeted with rousing applause from Democrats, who command super-majorities in both chambers of the legislature.
In the Obama administration, Republican-dominated states such as Texas often sought to block the president's agenda. In the Trump era, California may play that same role.
Californians voted overwhelming for Hillary Clinton last month and Democrats believe many of their policies, such as the state's lenient stance toward immigrants in the country illegally, its strict anti-guns laws and its recent legalization of recreational marijuana, could be threatened by the Trump administration.
Trump has called climate change, one the issues most important to Gov. Jerry Brown, a "hoax."
"The science is clear and the consequences are dire," Brown recently told reporters. "So, based on those two facts, I think Washington will come around. But to the extent that they don't, we're going to be pushing as hard as we can from California."
Still, Brown intends to take a more wait-and-see approach on other issues compared to the hard-charging Democrats in the legislature.
There are several ways the state may challenge Trump and congressional Republicans. It may simply choose not to not enforce some federal laws it disagrees with and enact stronger state laws around environmental and consumer regulations. The state is also likely to aggressively file lawsuits against the federal government.
Contrary to the political rhetoric of State Officials, here's what's going on in California:
Effective January 1, 2014, the “Transparency and Responsibility Using State Tools Act” (TRUST
Act) has been enacted into California law. (Gov. Code, §§ 7282, 7282.5; Stats. 2013, ch. 570.) The TRUST Act limits the discretion of law enforcement officials to detain an individual pursuant to a federal immigration detainer request unless certain conditions are met. Additionally, new federal case law has created legal risk for local jurisdictions that voluntarily comply with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) request to detain an individual.
that the county in that case is “free to disregard the ICE detainer") Are Not Mandatory, Los Angeles County, (including more than 90% of all counties, with the exception of San Francisco) does comply with ICE and Federal Court Rulings Detainer Requests...
under Obama administration, but will try to oppose Donald Trump's administration (?)
To that end, Brown's pick to be California's next attorney general, Congressman Xavier Becerra will play a high-profile role. Becerra said the state isn't looking to pick fights but won't be afraid to go to court either.
"My obligation is to protect my state, to promote the interests of my state," said Becerra.
It may sound unusual for a liberal state like California to resort to an appeal to states' rights. For the past eight years, conservative states have argued for their autonomy with respect to the federal government.
But states are opportunistic about their use of states' rights arguments and tend to employ them when their party doesn't control Washington, says Carlton Larson, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. Still, Larson says California may want to be careful about how much it uses that argument.
"If we were to push back very, very heavily against federal law, there's a real danger," that environmental and civil rights laws that depend on a broad reading of federal law could be endangered, said Larson.
Democrats have already introduced one bill to better train defense attorneys on immigration law and another to fund legal representation for people facing deportation. Both are "urgency measures" meaning they would take effect immediately if they muster a two-thirds vote. The programs are expected to cost millions of dollars.
Republicans lawmakers in California have criticized Democrats for taking legislative action before Trump is even sworn in. But Senate leader Kevin de Leon says Californians need reassuring.
"It's not our responsibility to read the tea leaves and predict what the president-elect may or may not do or what his administration may or may not do," de Leon said. "It's our moral responsibility as Senators, as Assembly members, to do everything within our power to protect our constituents."
The Trump administration has plenty of tools to try to force California to comply, and California most certainly will, albeit, not openly. For instance, the state received nearly $96 billion in federal funds this year, according to the California Department of Finance.
That sum didn't faze Governor Brown when he recently vowed to continue the state's aggressive approach to combating climate change.
"We have the laws, we have the tools of enforcement, and we have the political will," Brown said. "And we will set the stage, we'll set the example and whatever Washington thinks they're doing, California is the future."
That's a sentiment most California Democrats believe as they get ready for the next four years.
Follow @mavenstark
Follow @mavenstark
Mavenvision Stock Imagery Featuring high quality, royaltie-free images available for purchase on Shutterstock
Mavenvision Stock Imagery
Mavenimagery
Mavenmantes EyeEm collection
Madeira Beach, Florida
No comments:
Post a Comment