'Litigation will be key': Opponents roll out battle plan to fight Project 2025 agenda

Plans are already underway to fight back against the Project 2025 agenda that could swiftly be implemented if Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House.

Influential conservative organizations led by the Heritage Foundation are drafting policy papers and assembling a roster of potential staffers who could fill federal agencies to carry out their extremist plans and, while Trump has tried to distance himself from the project, his opponents are preparing to push back, reported CNN.

“We have every reason to believe this time around that, in the same way that we learned lessons, that the officials and strategists who would make up the second Trump administration also have a more sophisticated playbook,” said Deepa Alagesan, who leads the litigation team at the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Liberal advocacy groups and Democratic state officials who fought Trump's first administration in court have been researching case law, allocating resources and identifying potential plaintiffs for lawsuits challenging Project 2025 provisions, CNN reported.

“Litigation will be a key tool to preserve the status quo and to play for time,” said ACLU executive director Anthony Romero.

The U.S. Supreme Court is far more conservative after Trump appointed three justices, and lower court judges have grown less willing to grant nationwide injunctions and more skeptical of organizations serving as plaintiffs, rather than individuals, CNN reported.

The liberal advocacy group Democracy Forward has developed a "threat matrix" to challenge Project 2025 proposals.

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“We think it is imperative that people in communities have the tools to push back on unlawful and harmful extremism,” said Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman. “We are working with a range of organizations that will be able to prepare people in communities to push back, including through filing litigation against those proposals.”

The first Trump administration was inexperienced and less prepared to assume office, so opponents are making their plans on the assumption that a second Trump presidency would be far more prepared to implement extremist policies with thousands of loyalists staffing key government roles, CNN reported.

“Honestly, the Trump administration was often sloppy in the way they rolled out these executive orders, including the first Muslim travel ban,” said Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson told CNN.