Week 10 – April 6, 2020
Relationship with Local and County Government
Syllabus: The Role of the State Attorney General
Although the State Attorney General may be the State’s chief law enforcement officer, he or she is not the only law enforcement officer. Over two weeks, we examine the relationship between State Attorneys General with different levels of government. Before turning to the conflicts with local government or with the federal government, we look at the increasing polarization of the country, in which there are not only “blue states” and “red states,” but within those states, there are “blue cities” and “red counties.” We then consider the implications of these conflicts this week in State Attorney General actions concerning the hot button topics of guns and opioids.
This week, we are going to meet with the Attorney General of Montana and President of NAAG, Tim Fox.
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- Pew Research Center, What Unites and Divides Urban, Rural and Suburban Communities (May 22, 2018).
- Emily Badger, How the Urban-Rural Divide Became America's Political Fault Line, New York Times (May 21, 2019).
- Stephanie Armour, Red and Blue States Move Further Apart on Health Care Policy, Wall Street Journal (Feb. 28, 2018).
- Fox News, More than 100 Virginia cities, counties declare themselves gun sanctuaries as Dems prepare to take over legislature (Dec. 20, 2019).
- Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring Opinion on Local Gun Sanctuary Laws (Dec. 20, 2019).
- Continued Resistance Against Gun Control Initiative (Washington) (Feb. 24, 2019) (supplemental reading).
- Chris Trainor, SC attorney general demands that Columbia mayor repeal recent city gun laws, Post and Courier (Dec. 3, 2019).
- Eric Eyre, WV counties, cities seek larger share of potential opioid settlement, Gazette Mail (Oct. 5, 2019).
- Sara Randazzo, In the Opioid Litigation, It's Now States v. Cities, Wall Street Journal (Aug. 6, 2019).
- Ronald Brownstein, The pandemic is dividing blue cities from their red states, CNN (Mar 31, 2020).
- Ohio Mandamus Brief (6th Circuit).