Preparing for battle
California leaders are sending a strong message to Washington by hiring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as outside legal counsel. The state’s legislative leadership is declaring its determination to fight to preserve California’s policies against any incursions from Washington.
“Mr. Holder and his team will serve as outside counsel to the Legislature, advising us in our efforts to resist any attempts to roll back the progress California has made,” state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León and state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said in a joint Jan. 4 statement.
Holder was the attorney general for the Obama administration from 2009 to 2015. Currently, he’s a partner in the law firm Covington & Burling LLP, a global law firm in Washington, D.C.
With the hire, California’s leaders are clearly positioning themselves for an adversarial relationship with Presidentelect Donald Trump. Gov. Jerry Brown and the state’s legislative leaders have promised to strongly defend California’s policies on climate change, immigration and women’s rights, among other issues.
California voters, who overwhelmingly chose Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the November election, made it clear that they believe in those policies.
The obvious criticism — and it’s already been made by Republicans in the state Legislature — is that California already has legal defense in the form of an attorney general. It’s true, and California is fortunate that Brown’s pick for the position, Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, has decades’ worth of experience with federal policies.
But while it may be unusual for the state to bring on outside counsel, it’s not unprecedented.
What is unprecedented is the predicament California currently finds itself in, with an incoming president who rejects the policies on which California prides itself and has no track record of compromising with political opponents.
While much remains unknown about the challenges of the next four years, one thing that’s not in doubt is the legal complexity of defending policies on issues like climate change and immigration. Making initial preparations for these challenges by hiring expert outside legal counsel may prove to be a wise investment for California.