An Educational Resource on the Office of State Attorney General
A representative collection of media engagements by James Tierney on news involving state attorneys general.
Tierney in the Press provides a selection of media engagements by James E. Tierney on news items involving state attorneys general. To view an exhaustive list of past press engagements, please go to the National State Attorneys General press archives section.
For press inquiries, please email info@stateag.org.
Bloomberg Law podcast, featuring Director James E. Tierney and Professor Paul Nolette of Marquette University, looks at the possible enforcement focus of state attorneys general, particularly Democratic AGs, under the Trump administration.
“People are coming up to me and saying, ‘What’s going to happen?’ said James E. Tierney, a former attorney general of Maine, who ran a program studying attorneys general at Columbia Law School. Mr. Tierney, a Democrat, now lectures at Harvard Law School. ‘There’s a lot of eye-rolling down here, in both parties, like, ‘Oh my God.’”
“‘The implications of this are really, really serious,’ said Mr. Tierney, a Democrat who has worked with attorneys general of both political parties, noting that he believes the effect is that it ‘chills all legitimate investigations. ‘This isn’t about Exxon. This is about an attempt to chill government’s ability to investigate malfeasance.’”
“‘The amount of money is staggering,”’ said James Tierney, a former Maine attorney general and an adjunct professor at Harvard Law School who blames the Citizens United ruling, which lifted limits on corporate political contributions. ‘But that’s because it’s legal, and it’s legal because the Supreme Court said it was legal.’”
James Tierney discusses the reality of perceived conflicts of interest when a state attorney general launches an investigation into a nonprofit organization for potential violations of state laws.
In light of the sudden passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, James Tierney notes that decisions on pending cases involving a coalition of Republican attorneys general are now up in the air.
Using the investigation into Flint’s water crisis, James Tierney explains that state attorneys general often find themselves on opposite sides of the same case. Tierney discusses the options available to a state attorney general under such circumstances.
“‘The issue with Exxon, just as it was with tobacco, is what did they know and when did they know it,’ Mr. Tierney said. ‘If internal documents at Exxon show that they deliberately misled consumers and investors, then Exxon has potential liability.’ But, he added, ‘If the documents do not exist, then Exxon has nothing to worry about.’”
Tierney tells the New York Times that the “law in Illinois is clearly on the side of the attorney general” when it comes to who represents the state its officials, and the state’s litigation positions in court.
As the states begin their investigation into the Volkswagen emissions scandal, James Tierney tells the PBS News Hour that a large-scale civil settlement is likely, but only after any and all criminal investigation and cases have been resolved.
Despite party disparities, James Tierney explains that, historically, disputes between a state’s governor and attorney general are common and rarely based on partisan politics.
James Tierney tells Pro Publica that is common for state attorneys general to seek outside counsel in certain cases.
In this series of articles by Eric Lipton, James Tierney is asked to discuss the ethical considerations for state attorneys general, in light of concerted and aggressive lobbying efforts by lawyers and industry lobbyists.
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. ”
“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.”
Hunt Helm, "The Tobacco Wars: Strategist of Smoking Assaults Calls Shots from Maine Farm," The Courier-Journal, June 11, 1997.
“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.”
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.