California Convenes Special Session to Counter Trump Policies

The California Capitol in Sacramento on April 18, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

California state lawmakers convened a special session Dec. 2 to prepare for the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, with a goal of countering potential federal policy decisions related to environmental protections, abortion, and illegal immigrants, among other things.

Gov. Gavin Newsom requested in early November the session take place with a proclamation asking lawmakers to provide the resources needed for “litigation preparation.”

“We’re preparing for Trump 2.0, and his rhetoric has only heightened,” Newsom told The Epoch Times, saying that Trump had called for retribution and revenge, “and it requires us to be diligent.”

He said the first Trump term taught the state how to respond to perceived transgressions from the federal government.

“No one’s naive,” Newsom said. “We can’t roll over and let the progress of the last half-century evaporate.”

While urging preparations for prospective legal battles, the governor said he would prefer a collaborative relationship.

“Hopefully we won’t need any of the resources the Legislature will provide us,” Newsom said.

In the only legislation announced so far, state Sen. Scott Wiener—chair of the Senate budget committee—introduced Senate Bill X1-1 to allocate $25 million for the state’s Department of Justice, $10 million for county and city attorneys, and $25 million to cover local communities’ legal costs.

Grants awarded to county counsels and city attorneys could be used only for issues related to environmental protection, abortion access, and civil rights for immigrants and the LGBT community, according to the bill.

If passed and signed into law—which the governor estimates will occur before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20—funding will also support nonprofit legal teams offering pro bono services, among other things.

“This special session is about sticking up for Californians and for California values,” Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, said on the Senate floor. “It is about assuring that the president of the United States and his administration follow the law.”

He said any attempts to deport the state’s more than 1 million illegal immigrants—who the senator said generate about $8.5 billion in economic activity statewide—will be met with legal resistance.

Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez, chair of the Latino Caucus, said protecting these immigrants is an investment that will prove beneficial.

“Our immigrant communities are the backbone of our state’s nation-leading economy, and we are going to do all that is in our power to protect families and the progress we’ve made over the past many years,” the Long Beach Democrat said in a statement.

A representative of the incoming president’s transition team said voters made clear their preferred path forward on Election Day. 

 “The American people reelected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, like deporting migrant criminals and restoring our economic greatness,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman, told The Epoch Times. “He will deliver.”

Legislators in the state Senate debated the merits of the legislative session, with some saying that cooperating with the new Trump administration could be more fruitful than filing lawsuits.

“We have the Trump administration for the next four years,” said state Sen. Shannon Grove, a Central Valley Republican. “There are going to be things, I realize, my colleagues don’t like, and there are things our constituents, I believe, will like. I think we need to work with the administration to make Californians’ lives better.”

More than six million Californians, slightly more than 38 percent of the electorate, voted for Trump in November.

She said allocating more resources for legal challenges while the state is navigating budget deficits—which the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates will persist over the next five years, at least—would be a frivolous use of taxpayer money.

“[W]e need to be more prudent,” Grove said.

On the Assembly side of the Legislature, no debate took place on the floor on Dec. 2, with the first consideration of potential actions expected the second week in January when lawmakers return to the Capitol.

Some critics questioned the motive behind the governor’s request.

“This special session is a total posture,” Republican Leader James Gallagher told The Epoch Times.

Gallagher said the state needs to readjust its priorities and focus on issues that are affecting Californians—including insurance availability, the “cost of living crisis,” and the nation’s highest unemployment rate.

“Here’s a governor whose state is struggling ... and we call a special session for what, to pay more government attorneys?” Gallagher said.

Supporters of the session, including Attorney General Rob Bonta, said the preparation is needed to better position the state to defend its “people, progress, and values.”

“With potentially billions of dollars in federal funding on the line if the president-elect follows through on his promises, we must be—and we are—ready to act on day one,” he said in a Dec. 2 statement.

The leader of the state Senate said that while he is open to collaborating where possible with Trump, he is focused on protecting the state’s economy when public hearings begin next year.

“We’re in the calm before the storm and we know the hurricane force winds are about to hit from the incoming federal administration—it’s time to get prepared and batten down the hatches,” Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Northern California Democrat, said in a statement.

“We share and appreciate the governor’s concerns that California values and fundamental rights could be in the eye of that storm.”

California filed 123 lawsuits against the first Trump administration.

The president-elect pushed back on efforts to resist his policies, saying in a Nov. 8 Truth Social post that the governor is “trying to kill our nation’s beautiful California.”

“He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the great things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the election,” Trump wrote.