Attorney general’s office/Courtesy photo
Phil Weiser, Colorado’s attorney general, sat down for an interview Monday with the Vail Daily to talk about suing the federal government, his office’s efforts to protect youth mental health and his campaign for governor.
Colorado is taking legal action against the federal government
Colorado has brought five different lawsuits against the federal government since Jan. 21, along with filing amicus briefs in two other cases.
“There are two basic questions I look at, which are: ‘Is the federal action illegal?’ and second: ‘Is the federal action harming Colorado?’ A number of these cases were very easy to answer both questions,” Weiser said.
The suits are as follows:
- Blocking the federal funding freeze
- Protecting birthright citizenship: “That effort (to revoke birthright citizenship), in an executive order, is unconstitutional, because the 14th Amendment of the Constitution specifies if you were born here, you are a citizen,” Weiser said.
- Blocking cuts to National Institutes of Health funding: This would harm the University of Colorado and Colorado State University alone by $90 million. “Those cuts were done over a weekend without any consultation, without any process, without any reflection, without any reasons, and the impact would be devastating on our ability to conduct biomedical and critical lifesaving research, would take away people’s jobs and hurt our economy,” Weiser said.
- Blocking unscreened Department of Government Efficiency employees from accessing personal and sensitive information like social security numbers
- Blocking the executive order that seeks to prevent hospitals from offering gender-affirming care to individuals under 18-years-old, even in situations when it was deemed lifesaving
“In all of these cases, I looked at what was being done and saw it as being harmful, threatening and illegal, and we filed five lawsuits, and in every single one we’ve filed, we’ve had success stopping the harm and defending the rule of law,” Weiser said.
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“It is common,” for states to sue the federal government, Weiser said. “I wish it were not common. I wish the federal government was taking more care to follow the law and not to break it in ways that are threatening and harmful.”
During President Donald Trump’s first term, Weiser’s office brought “several” suits when the “federal government acted in ways we believed were illegal,” Weiser said. “We were very successful in those lawsuits.”
Weiser said he hopes he will not have to levy any more lawsuits against the federal government, but he will take action against future illegal and harmful orders.
“Unfortunately, these actions have come quickly over the last several weeks, and they have been unpredictable, so I don’t know which ones are going to be coming down the pike,” Weiser said.
Attorney General office’s actions for Eagle County
While much of the work Weiser’s office does has a general impact on Eagle County, there are three recent cases that have specific impacts.
Weiser brought a case against Vail Resorts for the 2021 Gore Creek fish kill incident, which resulted in a $275,000 settlement to restore the Gore Creek basin and support the state’s water quality improvement work.
Weiser also brought a case to block the merger between grocery store chains Albertsons (Safeway) and Kroger (City Market), which was successful in December. Weiser held a town hall in Edwards in May 2023 to receive feedback ahead of arguing the case.
Weiser’s office showed evidence during the trial that prices are lower at the City Market in West Vail, which has direct competition from Safeway across the parking lot, than at the City Market in Eagle, which has no direct competitor nearby.
“We highlighted that the current lack of competition in these communities has led to higher prices for groceries, and that this merger would make that situation even worse,” Weiser said.
Weiser’s office also wrote an amicus brief in support of blocking the Uinta rail line project that would bring large amounts of crude oil out of Utah and run along the Colorado River. Eagle County was the lead plaintiff in what became a broad-based case against the Utah coalition, which is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. “We’re fighting against that because it could be dangerous to the ecosystem here and could have real negative consequences with oil spills that we’ve seen before,” Weiser said.
Weiser’s efforts to protect youth mental health
Weiser’s office has taken three large-scale actions to address what it calls the “youth mental health crisis” in Colorado.
Weiser’s office sued Juul Labs to stop the company from encouraging young people to vape, resulting in changes to Juul’s marketing strategies and a nearly $32 million payment from Juul to Colorado. The Eagle County School District received $630,000 from the settlement to combat youth vaping through education and outreach.
“We very much want to see ways to build more relationship skills and resilience skills among young people so they don’t turn to vaping,” Weiser said.
Weiser’s office is also currently suing Meta and investigating TikTok “because of the way social media is operating and harming young people,” Weiser said.
“Young people now spend five to six hours a day on their smartphones on social media. That includes one and a half hours during the school day,” Weiser said.
Weiser’s argument is that the way Meta’s social media platforms operate is designed to keep people engaged for as long as possible, often by promoting content that is harmful to mental health.
“They’ve also been deceiving people about the impact of being on these platforms, telling everybody, ‘Don’t worry, there’s no harm to your mental health.’ But their internal research said the opposite,” Weiser said.
Weiser’s goal is to not only get Meta to tell the truth about its practices, but also to change its ways. “We want to change how these platforms operate,” Weiser said.
The current plan is to go to trial in spring 2026 against Meta, with Colorado as the lead state. The suit was filed in California.
Third, Weiser’s office is pushing bipartisan legislation at the Colorado State legislature that would require schools to have policies preventing smartphones from interfering with learning. The Eagle County School District passed its own cell phone policy at the end of last school year.
Weiser on Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Weiser said he opposes the decision to rescind the “sensitive locations” policy that prohibited Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting arrests at schools, houses of worship and hospitals.
“I do find the move to threaten people at educational institutions or houses of worship and perhaps courthouses offensive and highly problematic,” Weiser said. “If someone is here, and they’re an immigrant or undocumented, we want them to get health care. … It’s a constitutional right for everyone, whether they are documented or not, to be able to get an education. And we want people to be able to testify in court cases.”
Weiser’s ability to intervene in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests is limited, but he said he will step in if the agency violates due process of law.
“What I’m concerned about is the possibility that ICE will engage in mass and indiscriminate enforcement as opposed to following the normal procedures,” he said. “Roundups and efforts at mass deportation to scare people who may have a range of bases to stay here — they are married to someone who is an American citizen, or they have kids who are American citizens, or they’re a Dreamer — that’s a real concern.”
Weiser will also be keeping “a close eye” on potential legal interventions to protect Colorado’s national parks as the Trump administration slashes funding.
Weiser’s campaign for governor
At the beginning of this year, Weiser launched a campaign for governor in the 2026 election.
“I love serving the people of Colorado. Being an elected public servant in the state has been an incredibly meaningful role,” Weiser said. “I’m really concerned about some challenges that our state has.”
Weiser said he plans to address the rising cost of living in Colorado, bolster affordable housing opportunities, promote public safety, plan for the impacts of climate change and support the mental health of Colorado’s young people.
But throughout his campaign for governor, his day job as the state’s highest legal officer “will always come first.”
“I’m working really hard because I’ve got an additional responsibility,” Weiser said. “I’m going to always prioritize serving the people of Colorado as attorney general, and if there are political consequences from that, so be it. This is the critical job I’ve got to do at this key time, and whatever happens in this campaign for governor will happen.”
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