SEATTLE, Wash. — As Attorney General during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, Ferguson challenged the federal government 55 times, winning nearly all cases filed. Now, Ferguson has been elected to the Governor’s office. His replacement, fellow Democrat Nick Brown, says he’s prepared to do the same, though the two say - they don’t want to.
“If this team never has to file a single lawsuit against the Trump Administration, no one would be more happy than me,” Ferguson said during a Wednesday press conference.
However, the two elected leaders of Washington say they realize that the plans laid out in Project 2025, which Trump distanced himself from but Republicans have celebrated after the election, are likely to harm Washingtonians.
Ferguson says he instructed a team of hundreds of attorneys to comb through 900 pages of the policy to prepare over the last several months. Wednesday, he announced Brown is now a “Special Assistant Attorney General,” a position previous Washington Attorney General Robert McKenna extended to Ferguson 12 years ago so that he could learn the workings of the State’s top attorney.
“My approach is not to seek an adversarial relationship but, if anyone takes an action that harms Washingtonians, well obviously it’s my job as Attorney General to do something,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson and Brown say they look at three things before considering whether or not to file suit against the Trump Administration: Is the action from the White House illegal or unconstitutional, does it harm Washingtonians, and does the office have standing, or the legal standard of have a relative and rightful interest in the case.
“It was not unusual to have a policy adopted that had a strong view about in opposition to. But, we as a team did not feel it was illegal, that it was within his powers to do it. Well, if that’s the case, that’s the case,” Ferguson said.
President-elect Trump campaigned on a mass deportation effort of people without legal or undocumented immigration status. The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma is the fourth-largest detention center for undocumented immigrants in the nation. In 2021, Washington State lawmakers tried to pass legislation to close it, but it was thrown out in court, with a judge finding the Federal Government’s jurisdiction outweighed the State Law. Ferguson and Brown warn that similar constraints may limit what they can do to combat a deportation plan of that scale.
“It’s going to be our obligation to make sure that we are defending the rights of everyone in Washington state, citizen and non-citizen alike,” Brown said.
Project 2025 details using the 19th Century Comstock Act to ban the shipment of abortion medications like Mifepristone. It also looks to increase hurdles to emergency abortion care and restrict funding to pro-choice states.
Ferguson and Brown both believe state law could still protect women in Washington.
“There’s a strong argument that our state constitution’s right to privacy grants those additional protections,” Ferguson said.
Of the suits Ferguson filed during Trump’s first term, he says many of them were the result of “sloppy” executive orders or other actions by the White House. That’s not something he expects for the second time around.
“That provided openings for us to prevail in court. This time around, I anticipate that we will see less of that,” Ferguson said, “Donald Trump had individuals within his administration who clearly pushed back on some of what he wanted to do. There were voices within the administration who were interested in following the rule of law. I am concerned that there will be fewer if any of those voices in his next administration.”
For the four months to end his first term, Trump sat on federal funding requested by Governor Jay Inslee to help the wildfire-ravaged town of Pine City. KIRO 7 asked both Ferguson and Brown if they fear retribution for the suits that have been filed.
“The simple fact that that question is on the table is a real testament to the type of person that the United States of America just elected,” Brown said.
“It is very important that we continue to try to enforce the law,” Brown continued, “If you look at the track record of this office over the last many years and during the Trump administration, the vast majority of the cases that were brought were successful, which means courts in this state and in the federal courts as well found that the presidents of the United States administration violated some law or some constitutional principle or harmed people unjustly.”