A return of the resistance?

Just when it seemed that the Dem resistance was tuned out, former Biden-Harris officials are launching on Inauguration Day a new legal response center to bolster the fight against President-elect Donald Trump’s impending executive orders.

The new effort, funded by the national legal organization Democracy Forward — formed in 2017 during Trump’s first administration — will analyze the incoming president’s executive orders to support legal and political challenges to his agenda, according to plans first shared with POLITICO. The group, which announced the effort Thursday, has already identified more than 200 of what it classifies as emerging threats related to the incoming president’s expected executive orders.

It’s the latest sign of the nascent, albeit much different, resistance to Trump’s second term, as the Democratic Party braces for a better-prepared, organized policy rollout from the new administration. As the president-elect is poised to unleash his sweeping policy agenda, Democrats are preparing for a fight that will play out in the court of public opinion and across the country’s legal system.

“During his first term, Trump’s executive orders made health care less accessible, banned travel based on the predominant religion in certain countries, and made it easier for corporations to pollute our communities,” Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said in a statement. “This time, the Trump-Vance administration is better organized, has four years of previous experience, and can rely on the policy and staffing infrastructure of Project 2025.”

A slate of recent officials from across the Biden administration are joining Democracy Forward as senior counsel to support the effort: Karianne Jones, former litigation counsel for the Kamala Harris campaign and former OMB assistant general counsel; Mike Martinez, the outgoing deputy general counsel at the Office of Personnel Management and former chief of staff to the assistant attorney general; Dan McGrath, outgoing senior counsel at the Department of Labor, Office of Solicitor; and Kevin Friedl, outgoing senior counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Emily Ross, outgoing executive secretariat at the Department of Justice, will join as deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to the president and CEO.

The response center — which will coordinate with outside groups, litigators, strategists and policy experts — will house its work on the Democracy2025.org website. The team plans to share information about Trump’s actions, catalog them on the site and track legal challenges.

“We’re confident this center will be a critical resource for opposing dangerous policies in Project 2025 and other harmful and unlawful conduct,” Perryman said.