AG Keith Ellison is leading the charge against Trump in Minnesota. Will lawsuits make a difference?

Every day, Attorney General Keith Ellison and his staff print out the Trump administration’s latest executive actions and page through them to see if there’s anything they feel he should respond to.

Over the past month, there’s been plenty.

He’s filed or joined lawsuits to block moves to restrict gender-affirming care, end birthright citizenship and cut public health research grants, among others. Ellison also challenged Trump’s decision to empower tech billionaire Elon Musk to reduce government spending by dismantling entire agencies.

Some members of Ellison’s staff have pulled all-nighters as they try to keep up with the executive orders, now piling up in a stack on his desk. But keeping up is essential, Ellison said.

“They’re more organized, we’re more organized,” he said.

Now in his second term as Minnesota’s Democratic attorney general, Ellison is once again fighting the Trump administration in court. This time, Ellison said, the president’s team is not only more organized, they are more brazen in rebuffing the courts and ignoring traditional legal pathways to pursue his agenda.

“What he’s doing is circumventing Congress,” Ellison said. “He’s introducing authoritarian rule.”

Ellison has earned praise from fellow Democrats for acting as a “guardian” of law and order. Republicans, meanwhile, have accused him of using his office as a platform for “fear mongering” against the Trump administration.

“The selective outrage is nonstop,” Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, told Ellison during a recent legislative committee hearing. He pointed to President Joe Biden’s executive action to unilaterally cancel billions in student loan debt, which was struck down by the courts.

“I didn’t see you calling out or taking action against that. In fact, it was celebrated,“ Koran said. ”That’s the hypocrisy that I’m calling out.”

With Democrats in the minority in Congress, the party has had to rely on attorneys general in Minnesota and 21 other states to try to block Trump’s actions, and they’ve mostly been successful so far.

Judges have halted Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship and his attempt to freeze spending for programs already approved by Congress.

“The only thing that remains is the judicial branch,” said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, who praised Ellison for fighting back “without fear or favor” at a time when a Republican-controlled Congress isn’t exercising any check on the president.

“I know with great certainty that history is going to show that he has been there for the state of Minnesota whenever we needed him most,” said Choi, who’s known and worked with Ellison for years.

Nationally, Democratic attorneys general have formed teams to split up the work to respond to Trump’s actions.

Ellison, who serves as vice chair of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, is leading a team focused on workers' rights.

Previously a civil rights attorney who served a dozen years in Congress, Ellison said his time in the legislative branch has positioned him well to respond to an administration that’s “cut Congress out.” Ellison hasn’t ruled out a run for the U.S. Senate in 2026.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who succeeded Ellison in Congress, said Ellison began thinking about how to counter Trump’s agenda before the Republican was elected to a second term: “That’s why you’re seeing him hit the ground running on day one.”

“I believe we are facing a constitutional crisis and we need real serious litigation to push back against the executive branch that has gone rogue,” she said.

Minnesota House Majority Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said the state attorney general has a right to stand up against the federal government if it oversteps its authority. But Niska said he doesn’t think that is happening currently and accused Ellison of latching onto every lawsuit filed by other Democratic attorneys general.

“The knee-jerk joining into every far-left lawsuit against the Trump administration, I think, is not the right approach for Minnesota,” said Niska, an attorney.

Ellison said he’s worried Minnesota could be a target for Trump after passing a suite of progressive laws in 2023, including establishing the state as a refuge for transgender people seeking care.

The federal government is already looking into allegations of antisemitism on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus and is investigating the Minnesota State High School League for a policy allowing transgender athletes to play in girls sports.

Trump’s executive order restricting gender-affirming care also directs the Department of Justice to investigate states like Minnesota that have shield laws prohibiting the enforcement of another state’s restrictions on gender-affirming care.

Beyond laws and policies, Ellison is also concerned Trump could use his own attorney general and U.S. attorneys to investigate and possibly arrest individuals who have opposed him in the past.

“It’s a very scary moment we’re in right now,” he said. “And there’s no reason to believe that it’s not gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.”

Trump has rejected the idea that his actions warrant any legal challenges, seemingly claiming to be above the law in a social media post that: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

There could be more limitations and roadblocks for Democrats than during the first Trump administration.

The federal judiciary now has many Trump-appointed members, including on the U.S. Supreme Court, where some of these cases will inevitably wind up.

Even though he’s leading the legal pushback in Minnesota, Ellison doesn’t think it’s the way Democrats will most effectively counter the Trump administration.

He’s taken to social media to post videos encouraging people to write to their members of Congress and to peacefully protest the president’s agenda.

At a recent Capitol rally, the rotunda was packed with members of the state’s labor unions. Ellison ticked off a list of the successes by attorneys general so far in blocking some Trump policies, but he told protesters the “fight will not be won in the courtroom.”

“It will not be lawyers wearing suits and ties. It won’t be people carrying briefcases,” he said. “It’s got to be the people, the court of public opinion.”