Attorney General Peter Neronha is asking Governor McKee to help him in his fight against the Trump Administration

"Instead of Governor McKee helping me with my budget, he acts against it... My statement to him is join the fight. If you want to stand up to Trump, put your money where your mouth is..."

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha addressed the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias on Thursday. In his address, he spoke about his actions against the Trump Administration and his need for State resources to continue the fight - against a fight Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee refuses to acknowledge.

The transcription has been edited for clarity, and the questions and answers portion for brevity.

Attorney General Peter Neronha: There’s a lot going on, so I thought you might like an update about our work vis-a-vis the Trump administration. I’ll begin by trying to explain why we get involved in cases and what our rubric is. The first is whether or not the Administration and the President are doing something demonstrably unlawful. That’s the first question. The second question is whether or not that unlawful conduct harms Rhode Island or Rhode Islanders in some way. The third question becomes: Do we have legal standing to bring an action? Even if the first two questions are answered, do we, as the state, have standing? Remember, we don’t represent individuals in Rhode Island; we represent the state as a whole. That is what standing means in that context.

Through that lens, I have an overarching belief of where the President is trying to go based on what he has done. While our actions aren’t intended to impede that directly, they effectively impede it because we are working through the rubric I just explained. I’ll try to make what I just said makes sense.

The first two cases that were brought were birthright citizenship. We believe that the President’s attempt to do away with birthright citizenship by executive order directly violated the 14th Amendment of the United States and was in direct contradiction not only to the plain language of that Amendment but also to the case law that had interpreted it. That was question number one. Question number two was, was that unlawful act - the executive order outlawing birthright citizenship - harmful to Rhode Islanders? And without any specifics, there is no doubt in my mind that children are being born in Rhode Island today and last week and will be born next week who will have the benefit of the 14th Amendment and be citizens of the United States, irrespective of their parent’s immigration standing in the country.

We knew that the President’s unlawful act would impact Rhode Islanders. Then, on standing - did we as a state have standing to sue on behalf of those Rhode Island babies? We believe that we did, so we joined that lawsuit in Massachusetts.

Another case was brought in Washington State, and we have had success in both of those lawsuits. To date, I may get the order of some of these cases wrong, but the next case was the president’s effort to halt, pause, and freeze federal funding. We learned about that on social media, as you learn about so many of this President’s actions. The team quickly jumped into action.

Our civil division was rebuilt to have comfortable lawyers getting out on offense and defending the state when it gets sued. These people do healthcare, environmental protection, consumer protection, and civil rights. [Special Assistant Attorney General and Commission member] Jordan Mickman [who leads our Civil Rights Unit] filed a consumer protection case this week - they are lawyers ready to get out on offense, unlike lawyers that are used to defending a client like the Department of Corrections if they do something that’s not all that smart. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen, but we know that it does. And then somebody has to defend them. They’re entitled to a defense, and we’re the state lawyers - we do that.

However, these lawyers are different, and their skill sets translate well into bringing this kind of case against the administration. That team, by nine o’clock, had spoken with me. We agreed that we needed to do something. We spoke with our fellow states, and that case, I’m proud to say, was filed here in the District of Rhode Island the next day. [See here and here.] There were 22 states and the District of Columbia in that case. I’m proud that they had confidence in the men and women in my office to lead that case here in Rhode Island. There was and remains a lot at stake in that case.

The monies that the federal government, the President, was trying to freeze included Medicaid - don’t believe what the President would have you believe today - that Medicaid wasn’t on the table. Medicaid was frozen. Our State Medicaid office tried to draw down the dollars and couldn’t. There’s an affidavit of Jonathan Wilmer signed under oath where he documents exactly what happened. Rhode Island tried to draw it down but couldn’t. Our federal counterparts told us that there was a pause, a freeze. They didn’t know when the money would turn back on, and they wouldn’t put anything in writing.

As a prosecutor for most of my career, I will tell you that when someone tells you they won’t put it in writing, that’s a tell that they know what they’re doing is unlawful. The case involved healthcare, infrastructure, education, and law enforcement. Where you stand on the spectrum of politics doesn’t matter. It impacted every walk of life in Rhode Island. The federal government contributes one-third of our state budget. We’re already in a crisis. as you know, Senator [Tiara Mack]. As Representative [Michael Chippendale would know] if he was still here - if that money disappears, we’re in a real bad place because we’ve got a problem even if the money were there. [Note: As Attorney General Neronha began to speak, Representative Michael Chippendale, a Commission member, left the room.]

In a critically important case, we brought an action to protect National Institute of Health funding. We signed on to an amicus involving civil rights - LGBTQ+ rights in the military. We fought to keep Elon Musk out of our confidential information - and there is no question that these fights will continue in the future. I will tell you that the team is working very hard. That group of lawyers that I described earlier, some of whom are in this room, some of them are on your committee, they’re working hard, and in addition to doing that work, they are also carrying on their usual responsibilities.

Many Rhode Islanders have asked me - I spoke just this week in Barrington at an interfaith meeting where those of us who are troubled by what the administration is doing find hope - and look, there are many places to find hope, and we have to find hope individually where we find it. [The work of my office] is where I find hope; I think this is where others can find it. Attorneys General are built to fight. If you’re not wired that way, I don’t think you are a good fit for the job. And lawyers, particularly the kinds of lawyers I’ve been speaking about - are wired to fight.

On Martin Luther King Day, at an event at Ebenezer Baptist Church, I talked about fighting at that moment, and Leader Chippendale - I wish he were still here - told us after I spoke to forget about fighting and to put the gloves away.

Not true. We have to fight. If we don’t fight, the Trump Administration will run us over. I alluded earlier to my overarching concern, which is displayed through the funding freeze case. That is not new money appropriated by the current Congress. That is money the previous Congress had agreed to send to the states. Some might say that’s a waste of money. I disagree, but remember - it’s your money. It’s our money. Those are our federal taxes that are coming back to us to do the kind of work that Rhode Islanders need. One-third of our state budget comes from the Feds and it isn’t their money, it’s your money. It’s our money. It’s money that we pay in our federal taxes, and we have a right to that money, and the law says we have a right to it.

When the President says we can’t have it, what he’s effectively doing is he’s telling the Congress, “You don’t matter. I don’t care what the Congress says. Even though Congress said that money was coming back to the 50 states and the territories of the United States. I don’t care. I’m not sending it for whatever reason because I want to have big spending cuts, or I want to provide tax breaks to the very wealthy, or I don’t like the cut of your jib, meaning you have too many DEI programs, or they don’t like my Clifton clerkship program, or they don’t like the fact that I have a gender-neutral bathroom.”

Well, I don’t care. We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing, and we’re not going to let the Trump Administration use our money to change or try to change our values. When he sidelines Congress the way he does and when he attacks the legitimacy of the courts the way he does, what he is effectively doing is sidelining the other two branches of government.

Those other two branches, which our founders, our framers - you can read about it in the Federalist Papers. My Republican friends often talk about the framers - what you’ll see is there’s a tension [between Congress, the President, and the Judiciary] that assures our democracy and individual rights. If we don’t fight back, the President sidelines the Congress and turns them into either conspirators of silence or people who can do nothing but wail. Then the President undermines the judiciary where the fight by attorneys general offices around the country is happening - we all lose.

We have to stand up as Americans. We, as an office, have to fight. It’s why I asked Governor Daniel McKee, who was in my budget hearing upstairs, to stand with me in this fight. In Hawaii, the General Assembly and the Governor gave my counterpart $5 million to assist in this fight. I’ve got five people I could hire tomorrow - many of them coming from the federal government - experienced lawyers who could join our team and help in this fight so critical to our freedoms.

Instead of Governor McKee helping me with my budget, he acts against it. My statement to you will follow my statement to him. My statement to him is to join the fight. If you want to stand up to Trump, put your money where your mouth is, stand with my office, and enhance our budget. Let us do our job. We’re winning and will continue to win. The more resources we have, the more we’ll win. My message is that we are with you no matter what this governor does. We are with Rhode Islanders. We’re going to continue to fight. We believe in the work. We know what’s critical, and every one of our lawyers comes to work every day - whether they’re in my criminal division like [Commission member] Taylor Dumpson, in our civil division like Jordan Mickman, or on my legislative and policy team like [Commission member] Allison Fonseca. They come every day ready to fight because that’s what’s necessary, particularly in this moment.

Rabbi Preston Neimeiser: I am interested in what winning looks like and how the work will continue if this administration decides not to listen to federal courts.

Attorney General Neronha: I’ve thought about that a lot, Rabbi. What does winning look like? In my spare time, I like to read about history from the early part of the last century, which seems even more relevant today. There are echoes of authoritarianism in what we’ve been talking about. But I think it’s a holding action. I don’t think we’re going to change the President’s mind. In my mind, he’s a bully. You can’t negotiate with him, and you can’t reason with him. Those are my thoughts. I’m not speaking for my staff. We have to hold the line. We have to hope that our infrastructure and our institutions hold up.

Judge McConnell will not have a chance to do the right thing under the law unless our team works overnight to get him the case that will allow him to. That’s what it will entail. When the President acts, we’ll react—and quickly.

Winning, to me, is not being shocked and awed as the President would have you believe we are. We’re not shocked, and we’re not awed - and the proof is in the results. We’ve had near-universal success in pushing back against it because we’re right. It goes back to the things I started with. Has he committed a legal violation? Has he violated the Constitution? Does it harm Rhode Islanders? Do we have standing? When all three things are satisfied, we know we have a good chance of success. That will hopefully hold the line until the entire country comes around to our point of view, and we can elect someone who will believe in our Constitution and individual freedoms.