Archive for the ‘Attorney General News’ Category

From Attorney General Rob McKenna:

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna issued the following statement today regarding the decision of a federal judge in Virginia that a portion of the federal health care law is unconstitutional:

“Today’s decision validates the constitutional question that 21 states have raised about the individual health insurance mandate. The Court found that Congress’s attempt to force Americans to purchase private insurance ‘exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power.’ As we’ve said throughout this case, health care reform is critically important but must be done in a way that respects the constitutional rights reserved by the people to the states and themselves. Today’s decision affirms that point of view.”

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From KTKA.com:

Attorney General-elect Derek Schmidt says his office will increase scrutiny of any proposed federal environmental regulations that may exceed federal authority.

Schmidt, a Republican who takes office in January, tells The Associated Press on Tuesday that his administration would take a close look at any rules from the Environmental Protection Agency that might be harmful to Kansas.

While not specifically saying what action he might take, Schmidt doesn’t rule out joining a lawsuit filed by a dozen states challenging the EPA’s findings on greenhouse gas emissions.

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Major development in the health care fight.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The lawsuit, brought by Virginia’s attorney general, Republican Ken Cuccinelli, is the first court ruling against the law since President Barack Obama signed it in March. More than 20 federal lawsuits have been filed against the overhaul, and judges in two of those cases ruled in favor of the Obama administration.

While Monday’s decision creates a headache for the law’s supporters, it doesn’t mean that states or the federal government must stop implementing the law.

Judge Hudson didn’t grant the plaintiffs’ request for an immediate nationwide injunction against the entire law or against the requirement that most Americans carry insurance. That requirement begins in 2014.

The judge also said that his ruling only strikes down the requirement to carry insurance, known as the individual mandate, and the provisions of the law that are directly dependent on it.

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From Cleveland.com:

Attorney General-elect Mike DeWine today picked a county prosecutor and the director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety to lead the office’s law enforcement efforts, including oversight of the state’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation — a branch of the attorney general’s office DeWine heavily criticized during the campaign.

Clark County Prosecutor Steve Schumaker will be DeWine’s deputy attorney general for law enforcement. Schumaker — a Republican, like DeWine — will oversee BCI and other law enforcement divisions within the office.

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From whbl.com:

State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says he’s looking at several options for challenging the federal health care reform law. And he’ll decide in about a month which option to pursue.

Twenty other states have joined Florida in a lawsuit against the health law. Virginia has its own suit that includes legal concerns about a law in that state. The federal government tried but failed to get both those suits dismissed.

There are about 20 other lawsuits as well – at least a couple of which have been thrown out. Van Hollen says his staff is talking with officials in both Florida and Virginia. Wisconsin could either join those states, or file its own suit.

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From Legal News Line:

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell on Tuesday announced his appointment of Fairbanks attorney John J. Burns to the state’s attorney general post.

Alaska is one of the few states in which the attorney general position is appointed by the governor and then confirmed by the state’s Legislature.

Burns, a partner in the law firm Borgeson & Burns, will succeed Attorney General Dan Sullivan, who was picked in October to become the commissioner of the state Department of Natural Resources effective Dec. 6, Parnell’s office said. Sullivan had served as the state’s top lawyer since June 2009.

“John Burns is an extraordinary attorney who is committed to Alaskans’ interests,” Parnell said in a statement.

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With Republicans in charge, William Schneider will most likely be the first Republican Attorney General in Maine since 1980.

From MPBN.net:

Maine Republican lawmakers have nominated Assistant U.S. Attorney William Schneider to be Maine’s next attorney general.

Schneider also worked as an assistant attorney general and served as assistant minority leader in the Maine House of Representatives during his two terms in the Legislature.

Schneider competed for the nomination against Sen. Doug Smith of Dover Foxcroft, a retired probate judge who is now an attorney in private practice.

Schneider is making a bid for the post now held by Democrat Janet Mills. With Republicans in the majority, Schneider is virtually assured of winning the post.

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Attorney General Greg Zoeller is looking at changing how money from the sale of seized items from criminals is distributed. He wants to divide it up between police, prosecutors, and schools.

From nwi.com:

Zoeller is representing the prosecutors in the lawsuit. Zoeller on Monday said he also will work outside the courtroom and ask the legislature to enact a formula dividing forfeiture revenues among police, prosecutors and schools.

“There needs to be clarity of intent from the Indiana General Assembly as to whether assets seized and forfeited from criminal defendants should be directed to law enforcement to fund drug interdiction and enforcement efforts, or to the Common School Fund,” Zoeller said. “The place to have that debate is in the legislative branch, which has the ability to change the statute — not in court, through a lawsuit.”

State Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, the assistant House Democratic leader, said she expects a significant battle for the money in the legislature.

“The fairest thing would be for all parties involved to share it, but you’re going have everybody wanting as much money as they can get their hands on, just for operating expenses, just to keep the lights on,” said Lawson, a former Hammond police captain.

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Statement from the Steve Cooley campaign:

The Steve Cooley for Attorney General campaign today issued the following statement from Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley:

“While the margin is extremely narrow and ballots are still being counted, my campaign believes that we cannot make up the current gap in the vote count for Attorney General. Therefore, I am formally conceding the race and congratulate Ms. Harris on becoming California’s next Attorney General.

“We started this campaign late but we won an exceptionally tough Republican primary by a decisive margin. In the general election, we emerged as California’s top Republican vote getter and carried 39 out of the state’s 58 counties. We also cut by more than half the margin of loss by the GOP ticket in heavily Democratic Los Angeles County. It was gratifying to have received the votes of over 4 million Californians.

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From the LA Times:

With the stack of ballots left to count sharply diminished, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris continued to hold a steady lead Tuesday in the race for attorney general, making victory over Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley all but assured.

Harris, the Democrat, led the Republican nominee by nearly 53,000 votes — 4,385,438 to 4,332,596 — according to a Times review of updated vote tallies in all 58 counties. Although the gap remains narrow in one of the closest statewide races in California history, the chance for Cooley to pick up enough votes to make up the difference appears increasingly remote.

The secretary of state reported late Tuesday that there were 154,806 ballots left uncounted statewide. To win, Cooley would need more than two-thirds of those to overtake the Democratic nominee. So far, the gap between the candidates has been less than a single percentage point. Moreover, about two-thirds of the remaining votes are in counties that Harris carried, including Contra Costa, Monterey and Sonoma.

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