The last time Trump was president, the Golden State allocated $6.5m annually for the Department of Justice to defend the state against the federal government but ended up having to spend much more than that. The state spent about $42m overall on legal battles against the federal government, ranging from approximately $2m to nearly $13m a year. The suits primarily targeted immigration and environmental policies.

 

 

Gov. Newsom called lawmakers into a special session in November to pass the proposals, warning that  California’s freedoms were threatened by Trump’s election and that the state wouldn’t “sit idle” as Trump returned to the Presidency.

Now, the assembly has approved up to $50m in funding to defend the state against Trump’s punitive new laws. $25m is for the state Department of Justice to fight legal battles against the federal government, and another $25m for legal groups is earmarked to defend immigrants facing possible deportation.

 

“We do not trust President Donald Trump,”  the assembly speaker, Robert Rivas, said before the votes, describing the president’s administration as “out of control” and a threat to constitutional rights.

At a recent hearing on the proposed funding, the Democratic assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur said it is about “making sure that whatever happens at the federal level – and we don’t know what that’s going to be to a great extent yet – that our government is actually looking out for the rights of  California families.”