An Educational Resource on the Office of State Attorney General
Going beyond the headlines to examine the often overlooked issues and cases that highlight the wide-ranging impact and role of state attorneys general.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court wisely stated decades ago that the powers of the state attorney general are not "exhaustively defined." Nowhere is this more true than when an AG utilizes his or her "power to convene" in order to make law enforcement work a little better. In this instance, the AG of Montana, far away from the headlines, convened a local forum of law enforcement and crime victims in order to enhance justice in his state.
True to his word, the Ky AG has now sued to enjoin his Governor's order to cut the education budget. New Governors, often with no prior government experience, seem to not pay much attention to those constitutional or statutory provisions that limit their authority. State constitutions are structured so that it is the AG who is the natural enforcer of state separation of powers provisions. While rarely do these matters actually result in litigation - an AG Opinion often suffices - it does seem that these fights are more public and a lot nastier.
Over 50,000 wind turbines are currently turning and creating renewable energy in almost every state, but their existence and regulation remain a matter of significant controversy. In 2011, the State of New York passed a wind turbine sighting law that largely preempted local government control, and this week the NY AG issued a revised "Code of Conduct" designed to ensure greater transparency and limit corruption and conflict of interest. I know of no other AG who has taken this step.
Columbia Law School was pleased this week to host OK AG Scott Pruitt who was sponsored by the Columbia Law Federalist Society. In both our private conversations and during his remarks, Scott specifically mentioned his Office's leadership in handling the fallout from NC Dental v. the FTC. The issue has roiled the offices of many attorneys general as they balance their duty to represent occupational licensing boards even as they promote competition. Oklahoma's approach is the full-time responsibility of a lawyer from the OK Solicitor Generals office, which is crafting a pro competition model that is being followed by other states.
Yesterday I had the honor of giving the luncheon address at the Management Retreat of the Ohio Office of the Attorney General after which Attorney General Mike DeWine and I had a personal discussion that covered a variety of issues the most newsworthy of which is his office's success since 2011 in testing 13,000 old rape kits. Mike reported that approximately 30% of the kits tested positive - some years old and some of serial rapists - and that these results are leading to successful prosecutions. USDOJ and other prosecutors are making similar efforts in this important and long overdue effort to assure justice to rape victims.
Attorneys general have been investigating, suing and settling with for-profit schools for the last several years. Working with a plethora of federal agencies, the AG's have reached a number of sweeping settlements that have brought some relief to students whom the AG's and federal agenices asserted had been the victims of fraud. Until now, none of those investigations had actually gone to trial which is what makes Minnesota AG Lori Swanson's case against Globe University so interesting. This bench trial is expected to last four weeks.
The new Governor of Kentucky has ordered mid-year budget cuts to the state universities without legislative approval, and the new KY AG says that the Governor's efforts are illegal. The AG is giving the Governor seven days to change his mind or he will sue to rescind the cuts.
An editorial in an Idaho newspaper on March 24th contains a line that resonates with every state attorney general when it says, "[i]f Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden didn't know it already, he does now: He is very much a man standing alone." His budget, held by the Legislature, and the Governor, demanding that half of the Assistant Attorney General's start reporting to his Administration, the popular and nationally respected Wasden joins his fellow attorneys general in their daily fight to keep their offices an independent legal voice for the people of his state.
See: The Spokesman-Review, Huckleberries Online, Trib: Huffy Davis bullies AG Wasden
Peter Harvey, CLS '82, has been named the monitor of the new federal consent agreement with the Newark, N.J. Police Department. Peter is a long time friend of the AG Program, and is quoted here on why he left federal prosecution to join the NJ Office of Attorney General.
See: YouTube, Columbia Law AG Program, Peter Harvey '82
On the long-running nightly PBS interview program Charlie Rose, a conversation about the process of building consensus among state attorneys general in the fight against tobacco companies. Full transcript available.
“In the ongoing tobacco wars, Tierney, these days a consultant hired by state attorneys general, is part strategist, traffic cop, lawyer and spin doctor. His 10 years of experience as attorney general in Maine during the 1980s and his knack for a sound bite have gotten him quoted more often in the national press than many incumbent AGs. He’s a new breed of activist and outsider who, with a little help from digital technology, can influence Washington policy debates from far beyond the Beltway — and become something of an insider in the process.”
See: The Washington Post, Nov 17, 1998 [or download PDF]
“Control Central for the 35 attorneys general and 200 private lawyers pressing the vast legal assault on Big Tobacco is, incredibly, the perfect rural stillness of a weathered old farmhouse near tiny Lisbon Falls, Maine.
Up the stairs, in a small bedroom that affords a view of his neighbor’s pasture and occasionally yields up the wafting fragrance of his own ancient apple trees, James E. Tierney is a one-man information clearinghouse in the wave of lawsuits that is expected to redefine the role of cigarettes in U.S. commerce and society.
This rangy, 50-year-old man wearing blue jeans, a green plaid shirt and dusty old hiking shoes - a regular Mainer, you might say - is the spin doctor, coordinator and a key strategist for the attorneys general who are suing to make tobacco companies repay Medicaid money spent to treat smoking-related diseases.”
See: Hunt Helm, The Courier-Journal, June 11, 1997 (PDF).
“As the list of suing states grew, management of the complex relationships among the myriad attorneys general became nightmarish. Even with nearly constant communication via conference calls, lines of stress were increasingly obvious as the far-flung attorneys general staked out their positions. Minnesota Attorney General Hubert H. Humphrey III and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, for example, have taken an increasingly hard-line position against making deals with the industry as pressure for a settlement has grown.
’When you’re in a war,’ Moore said, ‘not only do you have to keep your enemy off balance, you’ve got to keep your own team together.’
As the tensions increased, the attorneys general turned to a colleague, James Tierney, to help provide a kind of glue to keep the unwieldy machine together. Tierney, a rangy former Maine attorney general turned business consultant, offers a combination of management skills and legal prowess to help his colleagues run their offices and lawsuits. Other attorneys general call him ‘America’s 51st attorney general.’
Working out of an upstairs bedroom in his old yellow farmhouse in the tiny town of Lisbon Falls, Maine, Tierney spends hours following up each of the strategic conference calls by helping each office sort out what one attorney general might have meant by a curt comment or what peculiarity of another state’s law makes its litigation position more difficult.”
See: John Schwartz, "In Tobacco Suits, States Find Strength in Numbers," Washington Post, May 18, 1997.
“With his telephone, fax machine, computer and an unyielding drive to challenge one of the nation’s most entrenched industries, James Tierney hacks away at the tobacco companies’ long-held claim that cigarette smoking is not addictive.
From his home in Lisbon Falls, Maine, the former Maine attorney general acts as a top consultant to 50 state attorneys general, particularly the 22 who have filed suit against the tobacco industry. Last week Tierney saw the first major dividend of his tobacco battle during a meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington.”
Paul Kane, "Tierney smokes out tobacco lobby,"" States News Service, Bangor Daily News, March 31, 1997.
Professor James E. Tierney
StateAG.org was founded by James E. Tierney, former Attorney General of Maine and a Lecturer at Harvard Law School where he also directs the Harvard Attorney General clinic. For thirteen years he was Director of the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School.
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StateAG.org offers in-depth analysis of the role of state attorneys general in the American legal system. It was founded by James E. Tierney, former Attorney General of Maine and a Lecturer at Harvard Law School where he also directs the Harvard Attorney General clinic. For thirteen years he was Director of the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School.
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