The novel and untested approach has been introduced by Democratic lawmakers in at least four states.
Democratic legislators mostly in blue states are attempting to fight back against Donald Trump’s efforts to withhold funding from their states with bills that aim to give the federal government a taste of its own medicine.
The novel and untested approach — so far introduced in Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin — would essentially allow states to withhold federal payments if lawmakers determine the federal government is delinquent in funding owed to them. Democrats in Washington state said they are in the process of drafting a similar measure.
These bills still have a long way to go before becoming law, and legal experts said they would face obstacles. But they mark the latest efforts by Democrats at the state level to counter what they say is a massive overreach by the Trump administration to cease providing federal funding for an array of programs that have helped states pay for health care, food assistance and environmental protections.
I think this is a discussion about what the hypothetical ‘legal’ way for this to go down would be. It’s not really an assertion that it would actually work, but just a description of what the process would be.
This has deviated from “would such a move be justified?” to “how could such a move be legally pursued?”. It may still end in the same place, but we can’t pretend the courts would treat the “just stop paying without a judgement” as “legal”. Might proceed in an illegal fashion as the only reasonable way through though.