How Many Times Did Maura Sue Donald? The Complete List of Massachusetts v. Trump

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2017/12/28/how-many-times-did-maura-sue-donald-the-complete-list-of-massachusetts-v-trump/

Massachusetts AG Maura Healey held court at a town hall event in Hingham on Jan. 30. (Evan Lips — New Boston Post) Massachusetts AG Maura Healey held court at a town hall event in Hingham on Jan. 30. (Evan Lips — New Boston Post)

Almost exactly one year ago, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey told an audience during a crowded town hall-style event in Newburyport that she had “run out of fingers” when it came to “trying to count how many groups” now-President Donald Trump offended during the course of his successful 2016 campaign.

Today, nearly 12 months into Trump’s presidency, Healey has also run out of fingers when it comes to counting the number of legal actions her office has brought against the Republican-led White House.

Her most recent filing, in which she added her name to a list of Democratic East Coast attorneys general in an effort to force Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency chief, E. Scott Pruitt, to enforce tighter air quality standards on Midwestern states, marks Healey’s 35th Trump-related legal action of 2017 — be it an amicus brief, a legal intervention, a joint lawsuit, or a lawsuit of her own filing. The actions are largely concentrated on fighting Trump’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s executive actions.

By comparison, Healey in 2016 filed exactly zero court-related oppositions against the administration of then-President Barack Obama.

Healey’s status as Trump boogeyman-in-chief was, however, predictable — during that same January 11 campaign-style event in Newburyport, she bluntly told an audience made up mostly of supporters thatvthe prospect of a Trump administration “really scares me,” a declaration that drew cheers from the crowd.

“There are so many laws on the books that are there to be enforced, and if they’re not going to do their job at the federal level, then we sure are going to do our job at the state level,” Healey said at the time.

Below is a timeline outlining Healey’s pattern of taking legal action against Trump — not including the hate crime telephone hotline she launched immediately following his presidential win.

JANUARY

Days after Trump’s inauguration, Healey announced her office was intervening in three separate federal cases , “seeking to stop an accreditor of predatory, for-profit schools, defend the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and protect standards for reducing air pollution from heavy-duty pickups, vans and tractor-trailer trucks.”

With the month coming to a close, Healey acted quickly after Trump signed an executive order halting immigration from and the issuing of travel visas for seven Muslim-dominated countries. She became one of the first to slap Trump with a federal lawsuit over the order, which wound up being upheld by the Supreme Court this month but is now facing another legal hurdle at the federal appeals court level.

FEBRUARY

On February 8, Healey announced her office was teaming up with a “coalition of other states attorneys general” — a theme that would continue throughout the year — in opposing the Trump administration’s efforts to “gut clean water protections.” On February 16, Healey announced her office was leading the charge of a coalition of 16 attorneys general in support of a previous lawsuit filed against Trump over his January immigration restriction order. Her office posted a link to Healey’s amicus brief to the AG’s website.

MARCH

On March 13, Healey announced she was joining Washington state’s lawsuit challenging a revised version of the so-called “Trump travel ban.” On March 29, Healey announced she was joining a coalition of state attorneys general vowing to fight Trump’s purported rollback of the Clean Power Plan , an executive action launched by former President Barack Obama that sought to halt carbon emissions from fossil fuel-driven power plants.

APRIL

On April 4, Healey announced she was joining a coalition of state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against Trump’s efforts to “block energy efficient standards” related to items such as “ceiling fans, portable air conditioners, walk-in coolers and freezers, commercial boilers, and more.

MAY

On May 11, Healey announced she was joining a coalition of state attorneys general in calling for an independent investigation to probe Trump’s firing of former FBI chief James Comey.

JUNE

JULY

On July 6, Healey announced she would be “standing up for students in Massachusetts and across the country” by leading a coalition of state attorneys general in “suing the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos for abandoning critical federal protections that were set to go into effect on July 1” — specifically for dumping a rule “ designed to hold abusive higher education institutions accountable for cheating students and taxpayers out of billions of dollars in federal loans .” On July 18, Healey announced she was joining another coalition of state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the Hawaii travel ban litigation — specifically over Trump’s bid to stay a decision in the island’s federal district court deeming “that the ban should not prevent grandparents and other close relatives of United States residents from entering the country.” On July 25, Healey announced she was joining attorneys general in other states in suing the EPA over its “u nlawful decision to delay a rule that provides vital protections for communities that live near facilities that handle or house extremely dangerous chemicals, workers at those facilities, and local first responders who are called on to address emergencies at the facilities. ”

AUGUST

In a precursor to Healey’s latest legal action against Trump, she announced on August 2 she was joining a coalition of state attorneys general in “filing a lawsuit in the United States Court of Appeals in the D.C. Circuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for illegally delaying actions to address harmful ground-level ozone , commonly known as smog, as required under the Clean Air Act.” Again with the Hawaii travel ban litigation — Healey on August 4 announced she was joining another coalition of attorneys general in filing a new amicus brief that once again “opposes the Trump administration’s appeal of the district court decision that the ban should not prevent grandparents and other close relatives of United States residents from entering the country.”

SEPTEMBER

On September 6, Healey announced she would be “standing up for the thousands of young people who call America their home” by filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its plans to “rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).” On September 19, Healey announced the filing of an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, signed by herself and a coalition of other attorneys general, “urging the court to affirm lower courts’ decisions blocking enforcement of the travel ban.” On September 20, Healey announced she was joining a coalition of attorneys general “in filing a lawsuit against the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation for their illegal delay of a regulation that would lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on federal highways across the country.”

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

On November 28, Healey announced she would be leading “a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief strongly opposing the Trump Administration’s decision to roll back a requirement under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for employers to include birth control coverage in their health insurance plans” in support of Pennsylvania’s lawsuit “seeking to stop the federal government from implementing new regulations that authorize virtually any employer with a religious or moral objection to contraception to block their employees, and their employees’ dependents, from receiving health insurance coverage for contraceptive care and services.”

DECEMBER

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