An Educational Resource on the Office of State Attorney General
Media engagements by James Tierney on news involving state attorneys general.
“‘Anything that involves trips to fancy hotels should be looked at pretty closely by school boards,’ said James E. Tierney, a former attorney general of Maine who is a lecturer at Harvard Law School, ‘and they should decide whether the ultimate users — kids — are getting the right products.’”
Natasha Singer And Danielle Ivory, "Legislator Targets Tech Perks in Baltimore County District," New York Times, Nov. 9, 2017.
““My long-term concern is that the AGs become seen as one more lawyer, one more politician on the make, and that undercuts the credibility of the office itself,’ says Tierney, the lecturer at Harvard Law who served as Maine’s AG from 1980 to 1990.
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What’s more, while AGs are the most prominent members of their offices, the vast majority of employees who work there are civil servants, not political appointees.
’They come in every day, they do a hard job, they don’t care who the president of the United States is. For 90 percent of them, there’s probably no change,’ Tierney says.”
“‘Any time you are paying a public employee to promote a product in the public classroom without transparency, then that’s problematic,’ said James E. Tierney, a former attorney general of Maine who is a lecturer at Harvard Law School. ‘Should attorneys general be concerned about this practice? The answer is yes.’”
Natasha Singer, "Silicon Valley Courts Brand-Name Teachers, Raising Ethics Issues," New York Times, Sept. 2, 2017.
“‘We’re politicians; we do what we have to do to get elected, but, you know, we draw the line. And Bill drew the line,’ Mr. Tierney said. ‘We wanted to give his courageous act voice at a time when the country needs to hear that there are courageous voices.’”
“When he was Maine’s attorney general back in the 1990s, Tierney refused to defend a state law he felt was without merit. The state Supreme Court upheld his authority to exercise judgment about which state laws to defend and which ones to leave alone. It may seem problematic to have AGs decide on their own which state laws can stand up to scrutiny, but ultimately someone has to make the call. The American system of governance is all about splitting power. When it comes to legal matters, the attorney general is most often going to be the one who has the final word.”
“The offices of state attorneys general are supposed to serve as a check on power, which has historically triggered fights and lawsuits with governors—including some battles within party lines. ‘The friction is there on purpose, it’s there in the Constitution,’ said James Tierney, a lecturer at Harvard Law School.”
“James Tierney, who fought the Reagan administration on acid rain prevention as Maine’s Democratic attorney general, said the legal fights have grown more partisan over the years.
‘It used to be we did this all on a bipartisan basis,’ he said.
‘I was a Democrat, but the Vermont AG [John Easton] was a Republican, and we frankly didn’t notice much whether somebody was a Democrat or Republican, we just went in and did it.’”
“‘It’s actually much less complicated than reporters think it is,’ Tierney says. ‘If someone does not enforce the law, then someone has to do something about it. We haven’t even begun to see what cases will be dropped, what unfair settlements will be struck—but people are watching very closely. And if [Trump] operates in a way that impacts the sovereignty or the proprietary interests of the citizens of the state, AGs will sue.’”
“‘The AGs consider themselves a thin blue line against federal overreach, there’s no question about it,’ said James Tierney, the former attorney general of Maine who runs a blog about state attorneys general.
There are 23 Democratic state attorneys general, including the District of Columbia, and 27 Republicans. Alaska’s attorney general is an independent.
About 10 Democratic AGs, grouped on the East and West coasts, are known to take a more activist role in suing the federal government, Tierney said. Some others would be more active but Republican Legislatures have curtailed their power and resources.
Tierney advises many of the Democrats coordinating their efforts against Trump. The group is braced to file more suits in coming months.
‘It’s actually an essential part of federalism in that attorneys general will hold the president’s feet to the fire,’ Tierney said.”
“Trump doesn’t come to office with a clean slate when it comes to relations with attorneys general. [New York Attorney General Eric] Schneiderman helped negotiate a $25 million settlement immediately after the election regarding allegations of fraud involving Trump University….
‘Donald Trump, citizen, not Donald Trump, president, enters the world of AGs on a watch list,’ says James Tierney, a former Maine attorney general who now teaches at Harvard University. ‘He ran a routine, garden-variety fraud — Trump University — and he was caught. Every attorney general I’ve talked to has had complainants in his state. Everybody opened files. When somebody’s a fraudster, they get on everybody’s agenda. It changes the way you look at him or her.’”
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.