AG Ferguson visits BG Rotary

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has certainly noticed more national attention this year. With his office making 17 suits against the Trump Administration, the Evergreen State’s chief legal advisor has had the spotlight on him more frequently than past years.

“It is what it is,” he said, adding that he appreciated the interest in what his office has been doing.

“I guess I’m getting used to it; it’s sort of the ‘new normal’ at this point,” Ferguson remarked.

Questions regarding his office’s recent efforts on the national stage were chief among those asked by members of the Battle Ground Rotary Club, who had Ferguson there as a guest for their meeting. Ferguson has frequented Rotary clubs during his tenure as he set a specific goal to visit all 187 in the state.

Ferguson’s trip to Battle Ground would be the 104th club he has visited, and the fifth club in Clark County visited. He said he uses the appearances to get a handle on the concerns of citizens across the entire state.

“(Rotary) folks are very active in their communities by definition,” Ferguson said. “I feel like I’m going to get a good sense of what people are thinking in that community.”

Ferguson talked about his office’s dealings with the current administration, mentioning that out of the 17 suits, four had been resolved already, and all in favor of Washington state.

“It’s not unheard of for the (Attorney General)’s office in Washington to sue the administration,” Ferguson said, mentioning that past Attorney General Rob McKenna had joined in a suit against the Affordable Care Act, and Ferguson himself had brought a suit against the Obama Administration over issues at the Hanford Site.

“Recognize that any time I’m suing the administration or the president, I’m doing it on behalf of the people,” Ferguson said, explaining he asks three questions regarding any legal actions: “Are Washingtonians being harmed, do I have the legal arguments and can I as an Attorney General bring the lawsuit,” he said.

Ferguson said that in most cases the suits contained arguments he felt that all Americans could get behind. In the suit against Trump’s first travel ban (which the state won in February) the U.S. Department of Justice argued that the president’s order was “unreviewable by the courts,” something clearly against how the law has worked previously.

“In times of war the president’s actions had been reviewed by courts,” Ferguson said, adding that the ability was chief among the separation of powers central to U.S. government.

In a suit regarding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Ferguson said his reasoning to contest the administration’s lack of communication that the Obama-era policy would be upheld.

Ferguson said that through DACA there was an agreement that if undocumented eligibles “came out of the shadows” and provided their information, it would not be used against them for deportation.

“The administration has made no assurance, at all, despite many requests ... that information would not be used against those 800,000 dreamers, 17,000 in our state alone,” Ferguson said. “That’s un-American to me … a deal’s a deal, right?”

Cannabis legalization was another topic, specifically regarding the sentiments coming from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ own condemnation of the drug. 

Ferguson recounted how shortly after taking office the Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder had sent out a letter to both Washington and Colorado, two states who had just voted to legalize recreational use. Cannabis getting in the hands of children and crossing state borders were areas of concern from the national Attorney General, which Ferguson said the state addressed.

“I’ve asked repeatedly for a meeting with Attorney General Sessions. He won’t give me a meeting. I know he’s a busy guy, but it’s a pretty big issue,” Ferguson said. 

In response to one request he said Sessions set him a long letter critical of the state’s system that relied on dated data — in one case it cited the split between recreational and medical operations, which has since been combined.

In crossing the state multiple times for the more than 100 Rotary visits, Ferguson said that although different demographics can lead to different opinions, the issues facing local governments and citizens — roads, public safety, business and jobs — were the same types of issues faced statewide.

“If you were with me at a Rotary in Port Angeles, here, up in Spokane, the Tri-Cities, the conversations are pretty similar,” Ferguson said, noting that opinions differed but the topics were largely the same.