California Lawmakers Are Taking No Prisoners As They Prepare To Fight The Trump Administration

California is known for being one of the most progressive states in the Country. With 39 million residence the state is preparing to defend and preserve it’s environmental values and state policies from the Trump Administration.

To help fight it’s legal battles California has hired President Obama’s former Attorney General, Eric Holder in what’s shaping up to be an epic battle between California and President-elect Trump.

“Having the former attorney general of the United States brings us a lot of firepower in order to prepare to safeguard the values of the people of California,” Kevin de León, the Democratic leader of the Senate, said in an interview. “This means we are very, very serious.”

de Leon said Holder would serve as the legislature’s “lead litigator, and he will have a legal team of expert lawyers on the issues of climate change, women and civil rights, the environment, immigration, voting rights — to name just a few.”

California voted decisively for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election, choosing the former first lady over Trump by 28 percentage points.

De León and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon started planning to hire outside legal counsel for the Legislature right after Trump won the election. The goal being to protect existing state policies that are now in trouble under Trump. Holder — who left the administration in 2015 and joined Covington & Burling, a law firm in Washington that specializes in representing states and companies against the federal government — seemed a perfect choice.

“While we don’t yet know the harmful proposals the next administration will put forward, thanks to Donald Trump’s campaign, cabinet appointments and Twitter feed, we do have an idea of what we will be dealing with,” Rendon said in a statement.

“The Covington team will be an important resource as we work with the governor and the attorney general to protect Californians,” he added.

Rendon said Holder would work in tandem with Becerra, whom Brown has formally nominated to replace former Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris. She now serves in the U.S. Senate, and Becerra, whose nomination hearings in the Legislature begin next week, is expected to be easily confirmed.

We need to continue to be aware of what is going on in Washington and to voice our opinions so that terrible policies that will only undue what we have achieved are not enacted. It is great that California is aware of the possible risks of a Trump Administration and hopefully other states follow.