New York Attorney General Letitia James
Appearances
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
all of the people that they've cut through doge and the faa because they won't tell us but we've taken elon musk to court we were successful in getting him to stop stealing our personal data our most sensitive data which was i think the purpose of his whole exercise um and this is a great example you cut people from the faa you don't know what the impact is we saw them cut nuclear regulators we saw them cut people who make sure our planes land on time and sure enough they're not
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
And so I do hope that they start just doing their job, not doing what DOT is actually doing right now, which is illegal, which is trying to mandate immigration enforcement policies through coercive grant conditions that I'm sure we'll be seeing them in court on not too distant future. But let's be clear, the Department of Transportation is responsible.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
And the FAA is responsible for making sure that our airports run on time. Stop pointing fingers, stop focusing on things that are outside of your mandate, and get New Jerseyans and everybody else who flies through our airport to and from where they want to go on time and safely. That is what they expect when they go to the airport, not all this other nonsense.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
Thanks so much for having me.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
Well, first, thanks for having me. And yeah, what the president said there and what he said, frankly, in his executive order at 8 p.m. on the first day in office, trying to be the first president in 157 years to take the interpretation that he just said, to rewrite the plain text of the 14th Amendment that
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
After a civil war, we came together as a nation and said, never again are we going to debate whether babies born on U.S. soil are, in fact, entitled to the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship. We settled that with the Civil War. And for a century and a half, the Supreme Court and basically everyone in the United States understood that that was the way
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
citizenship worked and now we'll be leading the argument at the supreme court on behalf of a coalition of states that sued immediately we were in court the next morning after he filed that order because it affects us it affects our residents and it affects us as states and think about this you know they want to say that in this phase they want to say that citizenship
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
is decided based on whether or not your state attorney general joined our suit. So for New Jersey, if you're a parent giving birth in South Jersey, well, a lot of those parents go to Philadelphia hospitals. And so Pennsylvania is not in our suit. So they would say that your citizenship is decided based on which hospital you go to for residents in our state.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
No one seriously thinks the Constitution works that way. It hasn't worked that way since the Civil War, and I'm confident we're going to prevail next week.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
Well, again, I think you're right that there's been some hypocrisy in terms of when this administration does and doesn't like nationwide injunctions. But put aside that debate for a second. Our position here is clear. I don't see how you could consider whether this order should apply to every state without considering the merits of what we're talking about.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
I gave you the example earlier about the child being born in Philadelphia who lives in South Jersey. But just think about it for a second. I mean, we were talking earlier. You and I both lived in different states. Most Americans have lived in different states throughout their lives. And people move in this country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
So what this court would be saying, if in fact it's saying, no, it only applies, this injunction right now only applies to the states that are in this suit, meaning the states that have brought suit against the administration,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
then effectively each state would be in a position and the residents of our state would be parsing through who's a citizen and who isn't based on which state they live in at the time of their birth and potentially where they move to. No one seriously thinks the 14th Amendment or the constitutional rights of this nation apply to you based on which state you live in.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
But that's effectively the argument that the administration, the Trump administration, is making to the courts.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
Yeah, I think this is a look yourself in the mirror moment as an attorney. Do you stand for the things that we've said we stand for? Are you willing to uphold the oath that you took to uphold the Constitution and zealously advocate for your client, something that we are all obligated to do? And I've been very disappointed.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
in what we as attorneys general have collectively called a capitulation by some of the most powerful law firms to what are clearly, clearly illegal and unconstitutional orders issued by the president targeting lawyers for doing their job, targeting lawyers for taking cases and bringing their clients' interests to court. And look, I'm the attorney general in my state.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
I represent nine and a half million people. I am routinely on the other side of the table with lawyers, including some of the very law firms that I'm in court now standing up for and saying their right to zealously advocate for their clients cannot be then falsified. flipped on its head and have them targeted and have their business model targeted by an administration who doesn't like it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
I would never even contemplate doing that as the Attorney General, much less actually implement it. And so this is bigger than just any one firm. This is about whether the attacks on the press, the attacks on the universities, the attacks on people's right, their First Amendment right, to go to court and advocate for their interests, whether those rights are going to stand.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
And if they don't, then we are clearly on the path to authoritarianism in this country. And so this is a really big fight. And I've very much been disappointed in some of my colleagues in the profession who have not recognized the significance of this moment and have instead put their own personal self-interest ahead of the interest of this nation.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
Yeah, this has been the most anti-education, anti-public education administration maybe in the history of this nation. Certainly incredibly hostile to what every American relies on.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
85% of Americans send their kids to K-12 public schools, and yet on Valentine's Day, literally as I'm having dinner with my wife, we get a letter from the Federal Department of Education saying, if your school had a Black History Month event or a Lunar New Year event or honored Martin Luther King Day, you can lose the entirety of your federal funding. So just think about that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
You have parents of kids with special needs. If you're a parent of a kid with autism, this administration has said, if you have one of those events, which by the way, the president had a Black History Month event in the Oval Office, and by the own terms of his own orders, he would lose federal funding for doing that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
That parent of that kid with autism might lose the aid that they rely upon every day who takes care of their child. And at the university level, they have threatened to cripple institutions of higher education strictly for unrelated political purposes.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
I mean, threatening to revoke the entirety of NIH funding, which, by the way, ensures that people on clinical trials for cancer and Alzheimer's can get their treatments. I mean, raise your hand if you think the American public went to the polls last November to cap administrative fees for NIH grants. Nobody knows what that is.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
But the upshot is every university in America, in red states and in blue states, would be shut down overnight if the order that we blocked was allowed to go into effect. So this is extreme. And again, it's part of a pattern of attacking critics of his universities, the press. lawyers, people who do their job, myself and other my colleagues in our coalition.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
But I know that there are a number of people who have stood up like us and are not going to back down in the face of what are really authoritarian threats on our rights in this country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
Yeah, the libraries, NPR, PBS and again, K through 12 schools, universities. And for me as the chief law enforcement officer, let's not forget that he has also gone after law enforcement. A couple of weeks ago, I came back from an interfaith event to a notice that millions of dollars of funding that puts cops on the streets were being illegally and immediately cut.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
So this has been an across the board attempt to use the federal government to weaponize the federal government against people, places, states. entities that he doesn't like based on however he decides to wake up that morning and whatever he decides to sign with that Sharpie. And the constitution of this nation was put in place for a reason. They did not want a king.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
And this president, all of the things you're talking about has been him acting like a king. And it started on day one with birthright citizenship. And it has continued through the first hundred plus days of his administration. And so your point is right, though. It's hard for the public. to keep up, but sometimes it's hard for us. But he is making a bet that people won't care.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
He is making a bet that, yes, we're going to lose some in court and he has lost in court. We have been successful in almost all of our cases, if not all of them.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
But he's making a bet that the public won't care that their rights are being threatened, that the principles enshrined in our nation's foundational document, whether it be the 14th Amendment or any other issue we've taken up, that they don't care enough about it. And I think he's going to be wrong about that. I've seen it out there. And it's important that the public keeps following places like.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
Podcasts like yours and places that are reporting on this and giving them information in real time so they can be aware of what's happening because it's unprecedented, it's alarming, and it is not consistent with how this nation is supposed to function.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
New Jersey Attorney General Platkin Discusses Big SCOTUS Hearing
Yeah, you're right. Newark Airport is an incredibly important airport, not just for New Jersey, but for the entire nation. It's one of the busiest airports in the world. And I just wish this administration would start doing their jobs. Stop pointing fingers. Stop doing things for political purposes that are illegal and do your jobs. And this is a great example of it. Now, I have no idea.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
So the list goes on and on and on. Whenever he issues an executive order, it's the blue wall of defense, the attorneys general all across this country who respond in record time, defending the rights of individuals, defending the rule of law and standing up for our democracy and for our freedom. And we'll continue to do that even with their threats and even
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
You know, with all of their, you know, the fact that they throw everything against the wall and see what's going to stick. You know, attorneys general, we're prepared to respond in record time.