“Massachusetts has excelled in these cases,” Nolette said, adding that Healey’s office has been a leader primarily on environmental issues and education policy.
Healey’s near-constant litigation with the federal government set her apart from previous Massachusetts attorneys general, including her predecessor Martha Coakley, who sued the federal government only about a dozen times in her eight years in office.
But Healey said in an interview with the Globe that she and her compatriots in other states had no choice but to step up as the Trump administration scaled back protections for the environment, immigrants, workers and more.
“It was absolutely necessary for AGs like me and others across the country to be there to hold the line, to protect our residents, to protect our businesses, and to protect and defend the rule of law during the Trump years,” he said you.
Her two Republican rivals for the governorship this fall accuse Healey of politicizing her office and diverting resources from state affairs to launch partisan attacks on Trump. Geoff Diehl accused Healey of “shamelessly abusing the powers of office for her own political gain and wasting countless taxpayers’ dollars.”
But in a state where Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump by 33 points in 2020, that’s unlikely There is a political cost to attacking the former president, especially when the strategy has largely worked.
A Globe analysis shows that about 77 of the lawsuits brought or joined by Healey were successful Percent of the time, either with an unequivocal court ruling or an order suspending Trump initiatives to buy time before the Biden administration overturns or reconsiders policy. Many proceedings are still pending. As a result, existing federal health care, social services, and environmental protection remained intact.
Former Maine Attorney General James Tierney, now a Harvard law lecturer, said the strategy of suing the federal government could pay off for states. After all, it’s far easier to prevent policy change than to get new legislation through Congress.
“You get a lot of bang for your buck,” said Tierney, a Democrat. “You can prevent something bad from happening or bring money into your state. You can get a huge payback.”
Healey’s office alleges that the lawsuits against Trump have brought the state billions of dollars in payments and savings through student loan forgiveness, reduced healthcare costs, dollars for the census and more. Additionally, Healey officials say some of the victories protect residents’ quality of life — particularly the environmental gains.
Trump had been president for exactly one week when on Jan. 27, 2017, he issued the so-called “Muslim ban,” which, in addition to far-reaching nationwide repercussions, would have barred thousands of foreign students and teachers from coming to Massachusetts, Iran, Iraq, Yemen , Somalia, Sudan, Libya or Syria.
Immigration attorney Susan Church was at Logan International Airport when the ban went into effect.
“We didn’t think Boston border officials would enforce the rule. Not our nice Boston officers, but they certainly were,” Church said. Healey “was probably the first politician I saw at the airport. She was there and said to us, ‘Anything you need.’”
“It was one of the first times I felt that a politician was proactively trying to protect immigrants,” Church said.
Massachusetts was one of the first states in the country to challenge the ban when Healey joined a federal lawsuit filed in Boston by two University of Massachusetts Dartmouth professors from Iran who were arrested and interrogated at the airport.
Federal appeals courts prevented the ban from going into effect. In June, the Supreme Court upheld a third version of the ban, which applies to travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and some Venezuelan officials.
Healey was a plaintiff in 96 federal lawsuits filed against the Trump administration between January 2017 and March 2021, including a suit filed in the first few months after Trump left office to challenge actions taken during his tenure according to a review of court records by Globe. Sixty percent of these lawsuits concerned environmental policies.
Few cases have been filed by Healey alone. One of those successfully lifted college restrictions that resulted in some students being ineligible for pandemic-related scholarships. In another case, a federal judge ordered the Department of Education to forgive the student loan debt of more than 7,200 Massachusetts students who attended the Everest Institute, part of the defunct national chain of for-profit Corinthian Colleges.
Most were filed by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general against myriad Trump policies: drilling for oil in an Alaskan wildlife sanctuary, separating immigrant families at the Mexican border, granting religious exemptions to employers who objected to providing health insurance coverage for contraceptives, Cuts in the food assistance program and lowering standards to reduce pollution and protect wildlife.
And while it might seem that litigation between multiple states would require a tremendous investment of time and resources, experts say the opposite is true.
The cases do not involve lengthy trials involving years of filing, testimony and motions, experts said. Prosecutors with expertise in specific areas draft the lawsuit, and the others simply add their names.
In fact, Republican attorneys general will go to court to block Biden administration policies, much like Democrats have sued Trump. Last month, 22 attorney generals sued, arguing that the Biden administration was using federal meal funds to illegally coerce schools into complying with the federal government’s antidiscrimination guidelines.
Healey said it made me “very sad” to have to sue Trump.
“We had a president who kept doing things that were illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and harmful to the residents of our state,” she said.
But Healey’s two Republican opponents for governor say she should have stuck to more traditional law enforcement focuses like crime.
“Massachusetts taxpayers deserve results, not headline-grabbing lawsuits,” said Chris Doughty, Healey’s second Republican rival. “Healey and Diehl have both been more concerned with national political agendas than putting Massachusetts first.”
Diehl added, “She thinks the people of Massachusetts owe her a promotion to governor, but really it’s Maura Healey who owes the people of Massachusetts an apology” for politicizing the state’s top law enforcement job.
Massive multi-state lawsuits against the federal government date back to the 1980s, when attorneys general sued President Reagan for acid rain. While these lawsuits were once a bipartisan effort, they have become increasingly partisan, Nolette said. Cases spiked as Republicans sued the Obama administration, then hit record numbers as Democrats sued Trump.
“That makes it hard for a president to do anything,” Nolette said. “It’s just forcing all these important issues, covering everything from immigration to abortion to civil rights, to the courts.”
Healey said her decisions were based on “the law and what was in the best interests of the people of Massachusetts. Period.” Not only would she sue a Democratic government, but she has, she said.
One of her first cases as Assistant Attorney General in the office in 2009 was suing the Obama administration over the Defense of Marriage Act, which restricted federal benefits for same-sex couples. Later, as Attorney General, she questioned the Obama administration’s policies on for-profit schools and environmental protection.
She said her office recently agreed to support a lawsuit against the Biden administration challenging the treatment of thousands of Haitian refugees seeking aid along the southern border.
Scott Harshbarger, who served as attorney general from 1991 to 1999, said Healey was doing what she was supposed to do: “Defend Massachusetts affairs whenever possible, stand up against the federal government or national corporations when necessary.”
“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, that was the tradition established by attorney generals long before today’s polarized era,” he said.
Shelley Murphy can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @hellymurph. Andrea Estes can be reached at [email protected].