Despite what furious North Carolina Republicans might say, N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson says he follows a strict checklist before prosecuting a target — and none of it involves partisanship.
“We use an objective criteria here,” the Democratic AG told Spectrum News 1. “It’s, ‘Did someone break the law?’ ‘Did they hurt the state?’ And, ‘Can I prove both of those things?’ And if I can check all three of those boxes, we’re going to take you to court.”
That checklist, so far, has put President Donald Trump in Jackson’s sights for a total of 25 lawsuits, and his office has confirmed he’s already won 10 — despite Trump being only hallway through his term. The others are still pending except for one Jackson agreed to dismiss.
Spectrum News said Jackson walloped Trump on The Federal Emergency Management Agency's cancellation of $200 million in disaster preparedness grants, the halting of AmeriCorps program’s funding and the cut-off of more than $165 million in Education Department funding, all halted due to successful lawsuits that Jackson involved himself in.
Even more of Jackson's successful litigation involves restoring food assistance during the nation’s longest federal government shutdown last year, reports Spectrum News. At that time, Trump tried to punish Democrats (and Americans) by freezing the nation’s largest food aid program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, claiming the program had “run out of money” due to Democrats’ refusal to fund Trump's controversial budget.
Dozens of Democratic-led states took the administration to court — Jackson among them — arguing that contingency funds could fund the benefits. A series of favorable lower-court rulings soon prompted states to issue full or partial SNAP benefits before the government even reopened.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis, speaking to Spectrum News, argued that President Trump’s obliging conservative U.S. Supreme Court, filled with Republican-appointed justices, has delivered favorable decisions to Trump “over 20 times,” and she called lower court rulings against the White House “lawless.”
“The Administration’s policies have been consistently upheld as lawful, despite some lower courts issuing an unprecedented number of lawless injunctions,” said Bis, a former communications director of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, known for suing states to purge voters from election rolls. “Instead of bragging about filing frivolous lawsuits against the Trump Administration, these radical Democrat State AGs should focus on addressing problems in their own states — like the countless criminal illegal aliens Democrats allow to roam free and terrorize innocent Americans.”
But while Jackson keeps racking up wins against Trump, state Republicans complain he spends too much time suing the president. North Carolina Senate Republicans even passed legislation that would have barred him from initiating lawsuits against the president over executive orders had the bill not stalled in the state House.
Jackson, meanwhile, is unapologetic about his belt notches.
“I think it’s hard to say that against someone who is so far undefeated. I think that our record speaks for itself,” said Jackson.
