Democrats and their network of left-wing legal groups have implemented a plan to stop President Trump’s agenda, which is really that of a majority of voters who supported him, through the widespread use of “Lawfare.” The plan includes shopping for Democrat-appointed activists disguised as federal judges who then rule not on the law or the constitutional principle of the separation of powers but on their own political bias and policy preferences.
Trump has more than 70 such cases facing him, with many having already been decided against him by the activist judges, which delights Democrats who are not only out of the White House but are in the congressional minority as well. Lawfare accomplishes what they can’t. But hold on: The president’s not taking all of this lying down, and he’s about to give Democrats a massive dose of their own medicine.
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed lawsuits against four states this week, all governed by Democrats, over climate change directives, which the DOJ claims conflict with federal authority and President Trump’s energy policies. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed lawsuits against the states of Hawaii and Michigan regarding their intended legal actions against fossil fuel companies. These states have described the companies’ activities as having harmful environmental effects.
Additionally, the DOJ filed lawsuits against New York and Vermont concerning their climate superfund laws, which would mandate that fossil fuel companies contribute to state-based funds based on their past greenhouse gas emissions. “These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice is working to ‘Unleash American Energy’ by stopping these illegitimate impediments to the production of affordable, reliable energy that Americans deserve.”
According to the court filings, the DOJ said the states’ policies “impermissibly regulate out-of-state greenhouse gas emissions and obstruct the Clean Air Act’s comprehensive federal-state framework and EPA’s regulatory discretion.” The DOJ made reference to the Clean Air Act — a federal law authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air emissions — saying it “displaces the ability of States to regulate greenhouse gas emissions beyond their borders.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, has engaged a private law firm to pursue legal action against fossil fuel companies for their alleged contributions to climate change. In Hawaii, Governor Josh Green has revealed plans to hold oil and gas companies accountable for the significant ecological damage they have caused in the state. He has also implied that these fossil fuel companies played a role in the deadly wildfire that occurred in Lahaina in 2023. On Wednesday, the DOJ argued that Hawaii and Michigan are violating the intent of the act, which delegates the power to limit greenhouse gas emissions to the EPA.
This is Trump pushing back big time in an effort to deliver clean, affordable, and plentiful energy to the world’s biggest economy, as he promised he would. And for the record, the federal piggybank is much, much bigger than state piggybanks, even California, so funding continued lawfare will be much harder for the blue states than it will be for the DOJ. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em…and bring a bigger game with you when you do.