By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
In the aftermath of an election which saw former President Donald Trump returned to the White House after a four-year absence, and Democrat state Attorney General Bob Ferguson win the race as Washington state’s next governor, an important question has arisen.
Will Ferguson, who filed more than 90 lawsuits against Trump and his administration beginning with a challenge of the travel ban for people of Muslim heritage just 10 days after the 2017 inauguration, use his new office to resume what many saw as an obsessive battle against Trump?
Ferguson, a liberal gun control proponent who pushed repeatedly for state bans on so-called “assault weapons” and “large-capacity magazines,” may have answered that question on election night. As he declared victory, Ferguson, noting the potential for Trump’s re-election at that moment, told his audience, “I want to be very clear. There is nobody running for statewide office this year anywhere in the United States who is more prepared to defend your freedoms against that administration (Trump) than I am. And I am excited. I’m excited if that day was to come I will have the best partner to be the next attorney general, Nick Brown, to help me in that effort.”
Why would Ferguson, who was sued by the Second Amendment Foundation and founder Alan Gottlieb in 2023 for alleged civil rights violations, waste even a thought on fighting Trump when, as governor, he will have his hands full dealing with state issues such as high gas and grocery costs, inflation, state highway and ferry fleet maintenance, education, taxes and other issues?
In October 2019, the Los Angeles Times did a profile on Ferguson, in which Jonathan Turley, the George Washington University constitutional law professor who appears often on Fox News, was quoted. He was talking about Democrat attorneys general who, at the time, seemed to be competing against one another to see how many lawsuits they could rack up against the Trump administration.
“There’s an exponential explosion of attorneys general lawsuits, and many of those lawsuits have failed,” Turley said at the time. “For Democratic attorneys general, lawsuits against Trump have become a badge of legitimacy.”
Ferguson has boasted about never losing against the gun lobby. According to SAF, that’s not exactly accurate.
Ferguson was on the losing side as a member of a coalition of 20 Democrat state attorneys general supporting a Minnesota ban on concealed carry by young adults when a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the ban unconstitutional. The case is known as Worth v. Jacobson.
According to SAF, Ferguson was also among 18 attorneys general “whose amicus brief to the Third U.S. Court of Appeals in a Second Amendment Foundation case challenging discriminatory gun laws in Pennsylvania was on the losing side in an attempt for an en banc rehearing before the court.” That case is known as Lara v. Evanchick.
And Ferguson was also among a coalition of 22 attorneys general signing an amicus brief supporting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ ban on bump stocks, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional. That coalition was led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Interestingly, this case determined whether the ATF had exceeded its authority in banning bump stocks, not whether they are protected by the Second Amendment. The case was known as Garland v. Cargill.
Democrats despise Trump, and went into what has been described as a “meltdown” in the wake of his victory.
New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a perennial anti-gunner who has frequently vowed to go around Republicans on various issues as Senate Majority Leader, is suddenly singing a different song now that the GOP will take over in January. According to The Hill, he “urged his GOP colleagues to embrace bipartisanship next year to get things done.”
But what action will come against the new Trump administration that may seem like 2017 all over again?
Writing at the National Review, Mark Antonio Wright is encouraging President Joe Biden to pardon Trump “of all pending federal charges, and relieve special counsel Jack Smith of his duties. He should then ask New York governor Kathy Hochul to use her authority to pardon Trump for the crimes he was convicted of in New York State.”
“Wise or not,” Wright observes, “a majority of the public chose to reelect Donald Trump as the next president of the United States. He deserves to enter that term in January 2025 with the slate wiped clean of the controversies of the previous era.
“Joe Biden has not often spent his time in office acting much like a statesman,” Wright adds a few lines later. “But a pardon now of Donald Trump would be statesmanlike.”
It might also make a quietly-anticipated last-minute pardon of his son, Hunter, more palatable to the American public. Biden previously said he would not pardon his son, but some people suspect he will change his mind between now and Jan. 20, 2025.
The question facing Ferguson is whether he can also set aside his obsession with Trump to handle the affairs of Washington State.
Washington State Republican Party Chairman Jim Walsh was quoted by KNKX News observing, “You know, I think it will be a chance for Bob Ferguson to show he’s a bigger man than he’s been. And if he can’t do that, then I think Donald Trump and the conservatives will show that we’re the bigger men.”
