ALEC Attack on Attorneys General Starts in Mississippi

Don't ALEC members always tell the press the following lie

I go to ALEC members where states share what is working for them and then I come home and implement it.

Well
Not so

ALEC introduces legislation - a state passes it and then ALEC says the reverse really happened.
They lie - they are all ALEC liars.



Two weeks ago in at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting in Charlotte, 
ALEC introduced a bill to limit the powers of State attorneys general

At the meeting, ALEC’s CivilJustice Task Force considered a proposal entitled the ALEC Attorney General Authority Act. The boilerplate is pretty impenetrable -- one more reason lawmakers don’t write these themselves -- but the summary attached for members’ advance consideration lays out the gist pretty neatly:

“Just as a private attorney cannot bring a suit on behalf of a client without the client agreeing and authorizing such action, and then only within the guidelines allowed by the client, so it should be with the attorney general. Rather than an attorney general deciding on his or her own what authority the office may have to bring a lawsuit, the authority should be defined by the state as reflected by the specific decisions of the legislature via statute. The legislature, not the attorney general, is best positioned to balance the competing concerns that go into the decision of whether to allow a cause of action and under what circumstances.”

GUESS WHAT

IT WAS PASSED in Mississippi

And here's what the Mississippi AG had to say about that:

Yesterday, after refusing to even allow Mississipppi AG Jim Hood to speak at a legislative hearing, Mississippi lawmakers moved at "warped speed" to pass an ALEC bill that strips away significant powers from Hood, a pro-consumer AG and the only statewide Democrat in office.  Mississippi, you will recall, had led the nation in going after the tobacco industry and getting billions back for state governments.  ALEC has made plenty sure that won’t be happening again in Mississippi.
Responded AG Hood:

"In the past eight years the office has recovered more than $600 million for our taxpayers from wrongdoers without costing the taxpayers one dime ... However, the huge corporate interests that paid for and supported this bill through the American Legislative Exchange Council have decided that they did not like having to pay what they owed the taxpayers of Mississippi."

And in terms of ALEC’s agenda, it gets worse.  At its recent meeting in Charlotte, ALEC discussed its new scorched-earth approach: an unbelieveable bill that would simply stop an AG from bringing any kind of lawsuit unless they get prior state legislative approval. 

That's what ALEC is all about.
TAKING AWAY PROTECTIONS FOR THE CONSUMER
PROTECTING THE ALEC CORPORATE PROFIT SECTOR MEMBERS
That's what ALEC is all about.

Get with it folks 
- ALEC CORPORATIONS HATE CONSUMERS!!!!
So don't feel guilty about boycotting them.

Your local merchants - LOVE YOU.  

PLEASE BUY LOCAL 

And GIVE ALEC Corporate Profit Sector Member the Big ol' finger.