PROVIDENCE – The future of America’s 249-year-old democratic republic is being played out these days in dramatic legal fashion in federal District Court.

R.I. Attorney General Peter Neronha is leading the fight, joined by a national coalition of 23 state attorneys general, battling against the apparent illegal efforts by President Trump to slash federal funds that were already appropriated by Congress. And, so far, Neronha and his team have been winning the legal battle over the rule of law.

The success of Attorney General Neronha should be no surprise. Under Attorney General Neronha’s leadership, the civil division of his office has battled the private equity forces attempting to squeeze dollars out of hospitals in Rhode Island – Roger Williams Medical Center and our Lady of Fatima – and won.

The Attorney General’s office under Neronha has ramped up environmental enforcement and won lawsuits against unscrupulous drug manufacturers such as Purdue Pharma and their consultants, including McKinsey and Company, returning more than $300 million in judgments to the state of Rhode Island.

The latest courtroom dramas, beginning with a coalition of Attorney Generals challenging efforts by the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget to slash federal funding, has put the bright spotlight on Neronha and his team’s efforts to preserve the rule of law in the United States.

ConvergenceRI has interviewed Neronha and members of his legal team numerous times during the past six years – at his legal office in downtown Providence, over coffee at a restaurant in Jamestown, at Save The Bay headquarters, and at an awards ceremony for the Childhood Lead Action Project at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick.

The latest interview, though, proved to be the most difficult to schedule. It took place on Friday afternoon, April 4, on the phone, with ConvergenceRI sitting in the hallway outside my primary care physician’s office, while Attorney General Neronha was driving to Providence to attend the unveiling of a portrait of retiring Judge William E. Smith. Call it a mundane setting for a candid conversation with Attorney General Neronha, who has spoken out and challenged President Trump’s onslaught in order to protect the fundamental principles of American democracy.

ConvergenceRI: We are at a remarkable point in history. You are very much leading the fight to preserve our democracy, if that’s not too complimentary, but that’s the way I feel.  I feel very honored to talk with you about your efforts and those of your legal team to go to court and preserve the rule of law.    
NERONHA: Well, I do have a great team, as you point out. Sometimes, you are just positioned to be in the right place. The Trump administration, in my view, is sidelining the Congress, undermining judges, and through that, [undermining] the rule of law, with the goal of centralizing power in the President’s hands.

Which is antithetical to our democratic principles, our history, and the only way for us to attempt to preserve this system of democracy that we have all lived under for 250 years is to fight back, and Attorneys Generals are positioned to do that.

We were ready for this moment, as I believe you and I have talked about before. Starting with President Trump’s election, we were not shocked and we were not awed when he inflicted chaos upon the country.

And, where we have standing to sue – and the President has violated the law and the Constitution and has harmed Rhode Islanders and my fellow Americans – we are going to take action.

We have done that repeatedly, and we repeatedly have found success. And so, I am grateful to my team. I am energized in this moment. And, we are going to keep fighting for Rhode Islanders and for Americans all across this country.

ConvergenceRI: Are you optimistic that you will win your court cases and that it will prevent the dramatic cutbacks in federal funds?    
NERONHA: I think we are going to have much more success than not. I am particularly confident at  the [federal] District Court and the Court of Appeals [levels].

Where the Supreme Court is, we will have to wait and see. I think we can rule out Judges Alito and Thomas as being unwilling, frankly, to do the right thing.

I hate to say that, but I think history shows us that. I am hopeful that the other judges, at least, will see what the President is doing here. And, because we are, in my view, absolutely right [emphasis added] on the law. We wouldn’t be bringing these cases otherwise.

We have had success, not only at the District Court but at the Circuit Court at least most of the time, by doing that. We won’t be able to prevent all of the President’s actions that hurt the vast majority of Americans, but we will, at a minimum, be able to stop some of them, and slow him down in other areas, and by doing so, hold on until the majority of this country comes to its senses.

ConvergenceRI: Can you talk about the importance of teamwork that you have put together, with your legal team, and also, with the coordination with the other Attorneys General across the country?
NERONHA: Richard, you and I have talked for a long time about my desire to build out the office [of the Attorney General], from where it was when we started to now where in the civil division we could get out on offense for Rhode Islanders.

We have talked before about health care and environmental protection and consumer protection and civil rights and other areas. We’ve done that; we’ve hired some really terrific lawyers over the last three or four years. And, in the course of doing so, we hired the kind of lawyers who can get out on offense against the Trump administration, and be effective.

It’s a skill set, frankly, that prosecutors have, but not all civil attorneys have. But we built that part of the office so that they are capable of [working] as a team and finding success, doing what they have to do.

In terms of coordination with my fellow Attorneys General, there are 23 of us in total, including the District of Columbia. It has just been remarkable. At our level, we speak three times a week; we will be speaking later this afternoon, as we do on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Our staff speaks every day.

ConvergenceRI: How will you judge the success of your efforts? Do you have particular goals or metrics?    
NERONHA: In some instances, we will be able to stop what the President is doing. For example, where there are Congressionally appropriated and obligated funds that come to the states, we’re going to be winning those battles, and that money will [flow to the states]. For example, take the public health funding that we got a temporary restraining order for Rhode Island yesterday [Thursday, April 3].

In cases like that, I think we are going to be able keep those obligated funds flowing [$11 billion nationwide, $31 million for Rhode Island]. And, we will keep going back to court, as the Administration engages in tactics [of delay and denial].

And, we will keep getting success, as with the original OMB case that we filed six weeks ago.  In some ways, I define success that way. Real actual wins that will reverse what the administration did. In other areas, I think that we will be slowing them down.

When I have been speaking at town halls, I have been using this metaphor, which is: In World War I, we stopped the Germans 30 or 40 miles short of Paris. I think we’ve got to hold on, slow the President down, stop him long enough, delay him long enough, that we can retake the Congress and eventually retake the White House and reverse the damage that this President is doing to the country.

It is really inexplicable to me how he ever became President. And, we are seeing the outfall of that bad decision by my fellow Americans every day.

ConvergenceRI: In many of your public conversations, you often talk about how these actions by the President harm real people, that they are not just about theoretical problems. Could you talk about how important it is to understand how the damages are being done to real people?    
NERONHA: Let’s take the public health battle. You only have to go back to COVID-19 to recognize how unprepared we were in that moment for that pandemic.

Trump was President then. His response was chaotic. And ultimately, the states had to fend for themselves in finding masks for health care workers, let alone the general public.

So, we weren’t prepared the way we should have been. Some of the stockpiles were unusable. The effect of that pandemic shuttered our economy, sent children home from school, and killed 1 million Americans. I believe the number of people worldwide who were killed was 8 million people.

But, these public funds that the President and Secretary Kennedy just stopped, without any notice, $31 million to Rhode Island, $11 billion nationwide, with those funds designed to prevent and deal with and address the next pandemic, either by responding to it when it begins to happen, or halting it or slowing it down or by preventing through vaccinations or other means. And that is going to impact real Americans if we are not ready for the next pandemic.

We didn’t think the first pandemic was possible in our life times, and yet it happened. So, to think that another one is not possible is not thinking rationally. So, that is one way this funding would impact everyday Americans.

You know, this cutting off of federal funding to libraries. Everyone from young Rhode Islanders to older Rhode Islanders rely on libraries, from everything from a safe space to spend time, a place for young Rhode Islanders to do homework, and have to have access to materials on the inter-library loans system.

Trump’s efforts to cut OMB funding included everything from health care to education to infrastructure. Medicaid funding was endangered, until we went to court. Federal funding is one-third of our state budget; Medicaid covers one-third of our state’s residents’ health care.

This is real money that impacts Rhode Islanders in real ways. Not everyone can afford a concierge doctor, paying out of pocket.

This health insurance with Mediciad is necessary. And it’s revenue that our health care systems need to stay afloat

You know, Anchor Medical, an excellent health care practice, including primary care pediatricians. They just announced that they are closing. And it’s not because they’re not good doctors; they have 25,000 patients.

It’s because of the way we fund health care in Rhode Island. These cuts by the President are only going to make that worse. It is a violation of the fundamental [social] contract we have with our federal government. Which is, we pay our federal taxes on April 15. We expect that money to go down to Congress and then be re-allocated to us for the basic needs of our citizens. We, as Attorneys General, need to hold him to account

ConvergenceRI: Moving forward, what gives you the strength and the heart to keep going? What are the positive signs that you’ve seen in the way that people have responded to your legal efforts?    
NERONHA: I think that people who believe that the President is a threat to our democracy, and that he is a danger to them individually – to their Social Security, to their health care coverage benefits – support our efforts. We are going to fight. I go into every fight expecting to win.

ConvergenceRI: Any last words of advice?    
NERONHA: Don’t pull any more refrigerators down on you.