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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every

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Speaker 1: day we bring you insight and analysis into the most

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Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more

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Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple podcast, SoundCloud

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Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. California has a

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Speaker 1: unique record. It's sued President Trump over his administration's policies

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Speaker 1: more than any other state. It's Attorney General Javier Bassa

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Speaker 1: often echoes these words in bringing lawsuits over everything from

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Speaker 1: climate change to immigration. In our lawsuit, we argue that

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Speaker 1: this decision by the Trump administration violates the Constitution and

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Speaker 1: federal law. And but Sarah is way ahead. His record

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Speaker 1: is eighteen to three in lawsuits challenging Trump. Joining me

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Speaker 1: is Cardike Mirocha, Bloomberg News legal reporter Cardoke. You sat

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Speaker 1: down with Bassa for a long interview. How does he

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Speaker 1: view California's role in challenging the policies of the Trump administration?

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Speaker 1: Is that the leader of the past act with the

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Speaker 1: other states following. You know, I'm not sure that he

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Speaker 1: wants to see himself as the leader, but I think

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Speaker 1: very much so. They are by default because Congress has

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Speaker 1: has taken very little action on issues like immigration and

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Speaker 1: climate policy, and attorneys general across the country have really

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Speaker 1: been leading that Foray, and California has been very assertive

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Speaker 1: in the last couple of years in defending especially immigrants rights,

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Speaker 1: climate policy. Because they set the tone on on so

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Speaker 1: much of these emission standards sanctuary laws, they now really

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Speaker 1: pride themselves on being that thorn in the side of

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Speaker 1: an administration they believe fails to abide by law. You

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Speaker 1: mentioned some of the subjects of the lawsuits. Are there

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Speaker 1: any suits or challenges in particular that he views as

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Speaker 1: the most important? I think if they've spent so much

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Speaker 1: time on fighting back on the administration's environmental deregulation policies.

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Speaker 1: They have filed forty nine suits, almost half of them

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Speaker 1: are all challenging climate policies, including this major lawsuit over

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Speaker 1: whether California gets to set its own standards and be

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Speaker 1: the standard bearer for the rest of the country, and

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Speaker 1: they are undefeated on those cases. They've won eleven rulings

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Speaker 1: already and ten more are are pending out of these

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Speaker 1: twenty one cases. So I think, you know, with with

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Speaker 1: a lot happening unchecked in Washington, when it comes to

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Speaker 1: environmental policy. California is really priding itself on its ability

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Speaker 1: to to check the administration and the e p A.

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Speaker 1: With all these suits against the federal government. Is it

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Speaker 1: depleting the resources of his office to fight other things?

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Speaker 1: He won't say. So. This is this is pretty much

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Speaker 1: the second largest law firm in the country. They have

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Speaker 1: over fifteen hundred attorneys at their disposal. Are there things

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Speaker 1: in California that they would be focusing on if not

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Speaker 1: for you know, this litany of litigation against the Trump administration. Probably,

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Speaker 1: But would he acknowledge that there are things falling through

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Speaker 1: the crux? Probably not so. In your story, car dec

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Speaker 1: you have a very good explanation of how California has evolved.

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Speaker 1: Just tell us how it's evolved into this fighter on

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Speaker 1: the front lines. Well, if you recall, in the seventies

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Speaker 1: and eighties and even early nineties was largely a red

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Speaker 1: state that as recently is ninety four past, this anti

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Speaker 1: immigrant proposition that was deemed discriminatory. It was effectively stating

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Speaker 1: that undocumented immigrants don't have rights to basic forms of welfare,

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Speaker 1: including healthcare. Federal courts turned it over and since then

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Speaker 1: we've seen this reversal in terms of political ideology in

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Speaker 1: the state that has made a standard bearer for a

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Speaker 1: progressive and left leaning politicians across the country. So let's

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Speaker 1: turn to some issues within the state, for example, the

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Speaker 1: future of p g n E. Did he give you

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Speaker 1: any hints? He did a little bit. We asked him

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Speaker 1: if the Attorney General would be taking legal action against

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Speaker 1: pg NI beyond the advice it's given on bankruptcy, and

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Speaker 1: he said stay tuned, which I think is is more

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Speaker 1: than I honestly expected him to to say. But he's

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Speaker 1: working quite close with the governor's office and figuring out

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Speaker 1: a way forward, not just legally but but politically. And

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Speaker 1: you know, when we asked him, what what does the

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Speaker 1: state run utility or what does the state utility look

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Speaker 1: like in the next fifteen twenty years, he said a

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Speaker 1: lot different. You know, they're working on trying to get

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Speaker 1: smarter regulations to ensure that the issues that Pini has

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Speaker 1: had not just from fires, but these explosions in the

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Speaker 1: Bay Area of the last couple of years become an

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Speaker 1: issue of the past, which he blames on infrastructure and

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Speaker 1: a lack of regulations. So there's a lot of work

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Speaker 1: to be done. He said that shareholders may not be

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Speaker 1: very happy about the way forward. For so, the relationship

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Speaker 1: between the state attorney general and the governor is often interesting.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes there's a little bit of a competitive element. How

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Speaker 1: does he get along with the governor, Gavin Newsom? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it seems like still a pretty young relationship between the

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Speaker 1: two of them. They're still getting to know each other.

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Speaker 1: But ideologically it appears as though they're aligned, especially on

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Speaker 1: immigration and climate policy. They're they're close to both of

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Speaker 1: their hearts and and want those to be priorities. Also,

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Speaker 1: criminal justice reform is a is a big deal for

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Speaker 1: for both offices, So they seem to be largely on

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Speaker 1: the same page. Uh. He didn't tip his hand in

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Speaker 1: terms of any any real conflict between the two just yet.

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Speaker 1: So his predecessor was Senator Kamala Harris, and he has

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Speaker 1: a lot more of a national reputation already than she did.

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Speaker 1: What are his political aspirations? He said, quote, this guy's

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Speaker 1: the limit. I suppose read into that what you will,

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Speaker 1: but one of Yeah, he's one of very few a

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Speaker 1: G state a G S who still has an office

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Speaker 1: in d C. As you mentioned, he's a member of

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Speaker 1: Congress with a national profile, but he's he's kept those

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Speaker 1: relationships well intact over over in Congress and and maintaining

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Speaker 1: his presence in d C. So you know who knows

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Speaker 1: in in a potential Kamala Harris administration, perhaps he plays

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Speaker 1: a central role at this point, it's largely speculation, but

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Speaker 1: he seems to uh to have a wet charted path

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Speaker 1: so far and and looking forward to doing more in

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Speaker 1: the future. As he had to battle anything within the state,

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Speaker 1: for example, any police problems or prosecutor will overreach any

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Speaker 1: of those kinds of issues. You know, the biggest issue

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Speaker 1: for the Attorney General has been defending these these trio

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Speaker 1: of sanctuary laws that they passed um to ensure that

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Speaker 1: employers and law enforcement aren't being forced to comply with

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Speaker 1: with federal agents seeking to detain undocumented immigrants. And the

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Speaker 1: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals defended a lower court decision

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Speaker 1: to protect these laws. But he has had to not

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Speaker 1: only defend this in court, but against other municipalities, counties,

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Speaker 1: and regional governments in California that don't agree with this.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, California is seen as this pastition

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Speaker 1: for for left leaning politics, but there are still a

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Speaker 1: number of red counties and municipalities in California that he

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Speaker 1: has to considering as a politician. It does get quite complicated.

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Speaker 1: So on that front, you know, straddling that funds and

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Speaker 1: ensuring that he represents the entire state, especially when the

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Speaker 1: legislature is passing laws be deemed to be pro sanctuary,

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Speaker 1: is a bit of a struggle. It's a fascinating interview.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing it with us on

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Speaker 1: the Bloomberg terminal. And it's called California Top Cop. But

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Speaker 1: Sarah won't quit essential war on Trump. That's Cardik Morotra.

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Speaker 1: He is a Bloomberg News legal reporter. Thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen

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Speaker 1: to the show on Apple podcast, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: dot com slash podcast. I'm June Basso. This is Bloomberg