In this ring: California vs. Trump

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and California are fighting a furious multi-front legal war, and every week seems to bring a new courtroom battle.

“It’s bloody combat,” Jessica Levinson, who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said. “This isn’t a cold war. It’s a scorching hot war.”

California has filed 29 lawsuits against the federal government since President Donald Trump took office, involving such issues as immigration, the environment and voting rights.

“Government by litigation isn’t what the American people voted for,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said this past week, “and attempting to thwart an administration’s elected agenda through endless, meritless lawsuits is a dangerous precedent.”

That same day, Sessions filed a lawsuit against California, accusing it of interfering with the sale of federal lands. It followed a separate suit last month to block three state laws that sought to protect undocumented immigrants.

Clashes between states and the federal government are nothing new, said Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

“This has happened throughout American history, but under the Obama and Trump administrations it has happened more often,” he said.