Attendees watch from the overflow room — the cafeteria of North High School in North St. Paul — the second stop in a series of “Community Impact Hearings” hosted by five blue-state attorneys general on March 20, 2025. Photo by Madison McVan | Minnesota Reformer
National Democratic leaders have been struggling to put together a cohesive response to the Trump administration’s maiming of the federal government, attacks on the judiciary and plans to cut Medicaid.
Five blue state attorneys general, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, are trying to fill the void.
The AGs stopped in Minnesota Thursday night as part of a national tour of “community impact hearings” — apparently only in Democratic-controlled states — to listen to stories of how President Donald Trump’s executive actions are impacting Americans.
They heard from several veterans recently fired from federal jobs; a disability advocate who decried potential cuts to services for the disabled and elderly; a refugee resettlement worker who had to lay off 26 of her staff and cut support to recent arrivals; an immigrant who fears the end of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA; and the mother of a 12-year-old transgender girl who had been kicked off of a club sports team, with her daughter standing at her side.
The Democratic response to the second Trump term has at times seemed anemic, but you’d not get that impression from the boisterous North St. Paul crowd of 600 — with 500 in an overflow room — who treated the event more like a rally than a forum. It was a catharsis for Democrats who have been seeking an organized push against the Trump administration.
When Ellison introduced New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the civil case against Trump that found him civilly liable for business fraud, the auditorium crowd gave a standing ovation.
And when James took the podium, she got the crowd to their feet again.
“Individuals have come up to me in New York and all across…they said, ‘Tish, aren’t you afraid?’ And the answer is, ‘I’m more concerned about individuals who are losing all of their benefits,’” James said. “I’m going to be all right, because I’ve got righteousness on my side.”
Ellison and other attorneys general have filed nearly a dozen lawsuits against the executive branch over probationary federal employees; the “Department of Government Efficiency”; birthright citizenship; federal spending; access to the Treasury payments system; restrictions on gender-affirming care; and cuts to National Institutes of Health grants.
Ellison’s office filed a lawsuit Wednesday over the Trump administration’s withholding of funding to the Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority, which finances green energy projects. On March 13, Ellison joined 20 other AGs in suing to stop the dismantling of the Department of Education (before Trump directed the agency to close entirely).
While the AGs talked lawsuits and motions and “TROs” — temporary restraining orders — they also repeatedly pointed to the Trump administration’s disregard for the law and legal system.
The executive branch can’t eliminate the Department of Education without a vote from Congress — but the Trump administration is gutting it anyway.
And the Department of Justice — while largely abiding by judicial rulings and procedures — has not complied with some judge’s orders. When a judge ordered the Trump administration to reverse its freeze on federal spending, it didn’t immediately comply. When a judge asked the Department of Justice to turn over information related to deportation flights, the federal attorneys provided a “woefully insufficient” response.
Asked what the AGs could do when the Trump administration doesn’t comply with the court, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said the AGs have been “really successful” so far.
In the auditorium, multiple recently-fired federal employees said they’d been fired based on bogus claims of poor performance.
After one fired probationary federal worker told her story, Mayes took the microphone.
“Have you been contacted by your agency to be rehired yet?” Mayes asked.
“No, I have not,” the federal worker answered.
Mayes said the AGs won a case last week requiring that she be rehired.
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