Tag: Xavier Becerra

A coalition of 16 US states led by California has launched legal action against Donald Trump’s administration over his decision to declare a national emergency in order to fund a wall along the Mexico border. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the US district court for the northern district of California after Trump invoked emergency powers on Friday when Congress declined his request for $5.7bn to help create his signature policy promise. His move aims to let him spend money appropriated by Congress for other purposes. “Today, on Presidents Day, we take President Trump to court to block his misuse of presidential power,” California attorney general Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “We’re suing President Trump to stop him from unilaterally robbing taxpayer funds lawfully set aside by Congress for the people of our states. For most of us, the Office of the Presidency is not a place for theatre,” added Becerra, a Democrat. In a budget deal passed by Congress to avert a second government shutdown, nearly $1.4bn was allocated to border fencing. Earlier, Trump had said he knew that he did not need to declare an emergency to build the wall, a comment that could now undercut the government’s legal argument. “Presidents don’t go in and claim declarations of emergency for the purposes of raiding accounts because they weren’t able to get Congress to fund items,” Becerra said on MSNBC. Play Video 1:43

In a 55-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor ruled that last year's tax cut bill knocked the constitutional foundation from under "Obamacare" by eliminating a penalty for not having coverage. The plaintiffs argue that the entire ACA is invalid. They trace their argument to the Supreme Court's 2012 ruling in which Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority that the penalty the law created for Americans who do not carry health insurance is constitutional because Congress "does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance." "Today's ruling enjoining Obamacare halts an unconstitutional exertion of federal power over the American health care system while our multistate coalition lawsuit works its way through the courts," Paxton said in a written statement. Today's misguided ruling will not deter us: our coalition will continue to fight in court for the health and wellbeing of all Americans." Becerra called Friday's ruling "an assault on 133 million Americans with preexisting conditions, on the 20 million Americans who rely on the ACA's consumer protections for healthcare, on America's faithful progress toward affordable healthcare for all Americans. Justice officials contended that, once the insurance mandate's penalty is gone next month, that will invalidate the ACA's consumer protections, such as its ban on charging more or refusing to cover people with preexisting medical conditions. In the letter to Congress, then-attorney general Jeff Sessions said that Justice was taking this position ""with the approval of the president of the United States." President Trump has vowed since his campaign to dismantle the law, a main domestic achievement of his predecessor, and the administration has been taking steps on its own to foster alternative insurance that tends to be less expensive because it skirts ACA requirements. The lawsuit has been opposed by a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general, led by Becerra, a former congressman.

California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, joins Ari Melber to discuss California’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, over their policy separating migrant families at the border. Becerra slams Trump’s calls for deporting migrants without trial “immoral” and a “violation of due…

The Washington Post reports that President Trump is privately pushing for the U.S. military to fund the construction of his proposed border wall. Former Michigan State University Dean William Strampel, who supervised ex-USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, was charged with four counts, including fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the Trump administration on Monday. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly decided to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 10. Today on The Atlantic The Last Straw: For years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tested the limits of the West’s patience. Snapshot What We’re Reading Throwback Strategy: After recent losses in Alabama and Pennsylvania, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has unveiled a new ad campaign targeting someone familiar: Hillary Clinton. ‘My City Is Scared of Police’: The family of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old unarmed black man who was fatally shot by police earlier this month, is tired of having to defend Clark’s character. (The New York Times) Testing, Testing Hi readers, Elaine here. Starting next week, we’ll be testing an additional way for you to receive the Politics & Policy Daily newsletter using Amazon’s Alexa. We’ll highlight the day’s news and The Atlantic pieces making sense of it all.

They don’t care about robberies. They don’t care about the kind of things that you and I care about.” On the eve of Tuesday’s visit, Brown and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — who has sued the Trump administration 28 times — suggested additions to Trump’s itinerary, knowing full well he wasn’t likely to listen. “You see, in California we are focusing on bridges, not walls,” Brown said in the letter, in which he also recounted visits by other presidents who celebrated the state’s diversity and recognized its role in the U.S. economy. “California’s economy is larger than Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” as de León put it. The border wall prototypes Trump plans to visit are on display in a dusty lot near the border east of here. While protests of Trump’s survey of the prototypes are being planned, at least one group is pledging a rally in support of the president’s vision. Alvarado predicted that Trump will also be met in the Los Angeles area by “plenty of people protesting. There’s really no political incentive for Trump to visit now, Mann said. “What’s the point of doing it if all you’re going to do is stir up the opposition?” When asked about the trip at Monday’s briefing for reporters, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that isn’t Trump’s aim. De León said California “is not Trump country.