What to do about rampant presidential corruption and greed, inhumane treatment of immigrants, disregard for the Constitution and betrayal of Ukraine? One thing all of us can do soon: vote. Another answer came from “Fight Back” the Thomas David & Judith Swope Clark symposium at Berkeley Law School August 28. The speakers there insisted, “if you push back, you can win against authoritarianism.”
They referred to a basic principle of U.S. founders like Hamilton and Madison who dreaded another demagogue like King George. They designed a system where, if one level of government fails, another steps up. In the current situation, with a president who shows little regard for the rule of law, state and local governments have the duty to challenge his illegal acts.
States and cities must safeguard their residents, providing education, health care, environmental protection and a social safety net. Thus, states can sue federal officials who violate the constitutional rights of citizens, for instance, killing them on the streets of Minneapolis.
When an “accountability desert” occurred there, with no federal agency willing to investigate the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the state of Minnesota filled the void; state legislators in Illinois, California and New York are considering similar courses of action. The framers of the constitution designed a way for states to sue the federal government when it violates citizens’ rights.
The system works both ways: we may be more familiar with federal agents escorting children into schools when southern states prevented integration. States and federal governments have always had the right to regulate each other. The same standards apply to officials at all levels, so states filing lawsuits now aren’t simply resisting current White House policies. Their actions show accountability to the constitution.
Nick Brown, attorney general of Washington and keynote speaker, has filed 74 suits against Trump; Rob Bonta, attorney general of California, 84. In the first Trump administration, the state of Washington led the fight against the Muslim ban. In February 2026, Sen Patty Murray (D-WA) rejected Trump’s proposal to cut cancer and Alzheimer’s research by nearly half, seriously jeopardizing Americans’ health. The Berkeley audience applauded an attorney there whose team had successfully prevented $15 billion in federal funding cuts to the University of California. Ongoing suits have preserved roughly $168 billion in federal funding for Californians’ education, transportation and health care, illegally frozen by the administration. Often these threats to funding are meant to punish states that voted for Trump’s opponent, but the New York Times in March ’26 tracked 198 cases that challenged the president’s spending actions. Those seeking emergency relief won in 80% of the cases, and of the 26 cases that reached a final judgment, 23 ruled against the administration.
Dean Erwin Chemerinksy of Berkeley Law who opened the seminar demonstrates how people who know the law can successfully challenge creeping authoritarianism. He underscored the duty of a state to protect its people by refusing to cooperate with ICE. A healthy society can’t thrive when people afraid of deportation can’t take their children to school or visit a hospital when they might carry a highly infectious disease. Congress and the Supreme Court have failed to act as checks and balances; the Dean characterized this as a time of “unconscionable capitulation (from some universities and law firms) and remarkable courage (federal district courts).”
Furthermore, he said, “the issues transcend this presidency.” Regardless of who occupies the White House, state and local governments have legal powers to resist economic or military bullying. They must challenge presidential overreach such as interference in elections when the constitution clearly gives that responsibility to the states.
This was not the kind of gathering which people forget the next day. Instead, each participant left with a pre-press copy of the book Fight Back which compiles essays by many legal scholars across the country in accessible language. All bear on the same theme: empowering state and local officials in a perilous historical moment. The book will be available in early 2027, and the symposium was offered again on September 25 at the University of California’s location in Washington, DC. Because it offers practical tools and strategies, it offers hope that we aren’t simply victims: we can be bold actors and legal resisters. Rather than wring our hands about losing our democracy, we can do something powerful to save it.
