By Tom Hals
(Reuters) -Democratic states' attorneys general launched a legal bid this week to defend Biden administration policies on immigration, the environment and guns, just days before Donald Trump takes office on Monday.
Trump has vowed to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally, roll back environmental rules and sweep away Biden transgender policies. His Republican Party controls Congress, as it did when Trump took office in 2017 for his first term.
On Wednesday, AGs from more than a dozen states, including California, New Jersey and Michigan, asked a federal judge to let them take on the role of defending a Biden rule providing health insurance to immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
A group of Republican attorneys general had sued in August to block the rule and the case was being defended by the Department of Justice.
"These are really important rules that protect or benefit our residents, and there's a strong likelihood that (Trump's) department of justice won't defend them," New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin told Reuters.
Similar coalitions of AGs moved to intervene in cases to defend Biden rules related to the environment, gun dealers and devices known as "forced reset triggers" that allow firearms to fire more rapidly.
"I don't wake up every day dying to sue the president of the United States," Platkin said, adding that Trump is entitled to his agenda. "He is not entitled to violate the rule of law, and he is not entitled to undermine our residents' rights in ways that hurt them."
Coalitions of state attorneys general have emerged over the past decade, using the courts to thwart federal government policies in areas ranging from healthcare to energy and financial regulation.
Democratic AGs formed coalitions during Trump's first administration to counter his policies, bringing 155 lawsuits and notching an 83% success rate, according to a database maintained by Paul Nolette, a Marquette University political scientist.
He told Reuters in November that he expected Democratic AGs to file "a flurry of lawsuits" in the first days of the incoming administration, particularly if Trump takes a number of executive actions on day one.
Republican AGs launched similar attacks on Biden policies.
Nolette said the Democratic AGs face a changed legal landscape in Trump's second term. The judiciary and Supreme Court are more conservative, due to appointments made during Trump's first term, and his White House staff is expected to be more experienced.
However, Democratic AGs also have more seasoned staff of hundreds of lawyers who learned from the previous legal battles.