Reduce intergovernmental lawsuits with a return to the RULE OF LAW

An open letter to President-elect Joe Biden:

“The hyperpartisan climate that engulfed the past two administrations led to hundreds of lawsuits filed by state attorneys general against our own federal government. As two former attorneys general from different political parties, we believe there is a better way.”

Greg Zoeller, a Republican, served as Indiana attorney general (2009-17) and is chairman of the World Trade Center of Indianapolis. Jim Tierney, a Democrat, served as Maine attorney general (1980-90) and is a lecturer at Harvard Law School. They wrote this for The Journal Gazette.

Greg Zoeller and Jim Tierney, “Reduce intergovernmental lawsuits with a return to the RULE OF LAW,” The Journal Gazette, December 06, 2020.

Activist state attorneys-general take on Trump and Facebook

“Today all 50 states and the District of Columbia have an officer with the title of attorney-general. All but a handful are elected in partisan elections, and all reflect the core philosophy of their respective political parties. And most importantly, each one has the extraordinary power to go to court to challenge the decisions of the US president or anyone else that affect their home turf.”

— James Tierney

James Tierney, "Activist state attorneys-general take on Trump and Facebook," Financial Times, March 27, 2018.

NOTE: Access to this article by direct URL requires a subscription to the FT. But if you Google the title, at the time of this writing, the link generated behind the scenes by Google will route around the firewall and take you to the article. We can't use that link here as it would violate the FT's terms of service.

BuzzFeed: We Took On Big Tobacco. It's Time To Take On Big Opioid.

“We need to start discussing the contours of an opioid settlement today, and to demand that public health principles be front and center. Without that discussion, and the priorities that emerge from it, we are destined to repeat past mistakes that must not be repeated.”

— James Tierney

James E. Tierney, "It's Time To Take On Big Opioid Like We Did With Big Tobacco," BuzzFeed News, January 10, 2018.

Related Reading

• James E. Tierney at Harvard Law School

• The Tobacco Settlement: 20 Years Later, a resource on the historic fight against big tobacco and the men and women who led these efforts on behalf of the states.

• "The Tobacco Wars: Strategist of Smoking Assault Calls Shots from Maine Farm," July 11, 1997.

• "Fighting Smoke With Fire," November 17, 1998.