The Trump administration has targeted the deep-blue state after dozens of lawsuits challenging his administration on issues from immigration to the environment.
THEY’RE PERPETUALLY IN court, on opposite sides. Each sees the other as the embodiment of bad practices and values. Sometimes the feud descends to name-calling and not-so-veiled threats of retribution.
No, it’s not the worst celebrity divorce. It’s California and the Trump administration, which have been engaged in an ongoing power struggle since Donald Trump took office in January 2017. But unlike other state-federal fights, this one is more evenly matched, as the Golden State uses its tremendous economic dominance and sheer size to thwart Trump administration policies.
“It’s true that California, on account of its size, can do an awful lot of stuff. The feds need California, for all sorts of purposes,” says Michael Greve, a professor at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School and an expert on federalism. Still, “California also needs the feds to be not too mean to it,” Greve adds. “It’s frequently a game of chicken. The question is, who blinks?”
View the complete February 22 by Susan Milligan on The U.S. News and World Report website here.