On Jennifer Davenport’s first day as N.J. attorney general, the Sherrill administration exchanges lawsuits with Trump

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport marked her first official day in the office exchanging lawsuits with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Davenport, appointed by Gov. Mikie Sherrill, had already been waging legal battles against Trump as acting attorney general before her unanimous confirmation Tuesday by the New Jersey Senate.

The state’s new top lawyer announced a lawsuit the same day against Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services over what she called its “rogue vaccine schedule that gambles with children’s health and lives.”

Trump’s administration also announced a lawsuit against New Jersey over a new immigration policy Davenport helped roll out that restricts ICE operations on state property.

She called the federal government’s suit a “pointless” waste of resources.

The two cases are a sign of more battles to come as Sherrill promises to fight Trump. Davenport will be tasked with ensuring the governor’s policies withstand a potential barrage of court battles in the months and years ahead.

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit against Sherrill and the state over the Democratic governor’s recent executive order prohibiting ICE from conducting civil immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant in non-public areas of state-owned property, which she announced alongside Davenport.

The DOJ’s legal complaint repeatedly misspells Sherrill’s last name.

“Federal agents are risking their lives to keep New Jersey citizens safe, and yet New Jersey’s leaders are enacting policies designed to obstruct and endanger law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “States may not deliberately interfere with our efforts to remove illegal aliens and arrest criminals — New Jersey’s sanctuary policies will not stand.”

Davenport said Tuesday that the DOJ lawsuit is a waste and that her team looks “forward to defending this executive order in court.”

“New Jersey will continue to ensure the safety of our state’s immigrant communities,” she said.

In a lawsuit going in the other direction, Davenport announced on Tuesday that New Jersey is joining a multi-state lawsuit against the U.S. Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and their leaders.

The suit challenges a January CDC memo that reclassified childhood vaccines. It removed seven shots that were previously universally recommended, including rotavirus, meningitis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The lawsuit also focuses on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to replace members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

“This radical and unlawful overhaul of the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule rests on fringe theories and ignores decades of science,” Davenport said.

The suit, which was led by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, was brought forward by a dozen other Democratic attorney generals and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat whose state has a Republican attorney general.

Prior to her confirmation, Davenport as acting attorney general joined another multi-state lawsuit last week against the Trump administration for rescinding clean energy funding that had previously been appropriated by Congress.

In New Jersey, the federal Department of Energy ended two agreements with Rutgers University, according to Davenport’s office. One, a $3.2 million award, was for energy-efficiency upgrades that would result in potential energy savings between $3.8 billion and $15.4 billion over the course of five years. The other award of $1.7 million was for research for farmers to use their land for energy production and agricultural production at the same time.

Lowering energy costs and fighting Trump were hallmarks of Sherrill’s campaign for governor and are part of her continued messaging as the state’s executive.

Davenport also sued the Trump administration with New York earlier this month over his halting of funding for the Gateway infrastructure project between New York and New Jersey. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release funding for the project, and construction is moving forward as the appeal process plays out.

She has also joined multi-state coalitions condemning the Trump administration over the DOJ asking Minnesota to hand over resident data in exchange for pulling the violent ICE operations there, as well as Trump’s attempt to halt funding for natural disaster response.

Sherrill and Davenport have also worked together to create a portal for people to submit videos of ICE agents in New Jersey and sharing information for residents to know their rights when interacting with federal immigration agents.

Davenport has more than 15 years of state and federal law enforcement experience, with experience at the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, United States Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, where she was colleagues with Sherrill for part of her time there.

She most recently worked as deputy general counsel and chief litigation counsel for the energy company PSEG.

Davenport worked in a top role at the New Jersey Attorney General’s office in 2018 when the state first implemented the Immigrant Trust Directive, the state’s sanctuary policy that limits law enforcement cooperation with ICE and has been upheld by federal judges.

The litigator, who grew up in Wildwood and now lives in Monmouth County, has two daughters ages 11 and 14. She graduated from DeSales University in Pennsylvania and the Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey.

“I am grateful to Governor Sherrill and the Legislature for the trust placed in me,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “I will serve with fairness, independence, and integrity — the same values that have guided every step of my public service.”