Tag: Jonathan Skrmetti

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Lawmaker Blasts State AG In Trans-Care Investigation

Jonathan Skrmetti (State of Tennessee)

A Tennessee Democratic leader said the state’s Attorney General has gone too far in an transgender-care probe and is, in general, widely deviating from his role in order to “promote his own political agenda.”

State House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) blasted Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti in a Tuesday statement. Clemmons said the AG is seemingly “weaponizing and abusing” his powers in the trans-care case. The investigation, he said, comes in a series of politically partisan moves by Skrmetti, the former Memphis lawyer given the post last year.   

Skrmetti recently required Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) to hand over patients’ medical records and the employment records of some of the hospital’s health care providers. The AG said a  doctor there had “publicly described” how she manipulated medical billing codes to get trans care covered by insurance. The investigation is to determine whether the act occurred and if it broke state law. 

Skrmetti defended his action in the case. He said getting medical records is done in “dozens of billing fraud investigations” and his office investigates and litigates “numerous” medical-billing cases each year. 

The Nashville hospital starting giving him the records more than six months ago, Skrmetti said. His office has kept the investigation confidential for more than a year and he said he was “surprised by VUMC’s decision to notify patients.”

 “The Attorney General has no desire to turn a run-of-the-mill fraud investigation into a media circus,” reads a statement from Skrmetti’s office. 

The investigation is directed at the hospital, not the patients, he said, and the records will be held “in the strictest of confidence.” He also said “we understand patients are concerned that VUMC produced their records to this office.”

But Clemmons said the investigation is targeting trans care and by entering private medical records into the public record, it seems Skrmetti “intentionally created a significant threat to medical professionals and their patients’ privacy and safety.”

“Given the specialty areas General Skrmetti is targeting, his actions give the appearance that he is improperly weaponizing and abusing the broad CID powers of the Attorney General’s office to carry out an intimidation campaign against one of our state’s preeminent healthcare facilities and its providers and patients for the purpose of promoting his own radical political agenda or that of an extremist faction within his political party,” Clemmons said in a statement.

Clemmons said the conduct ”is only a continuation of the politically partisan manner in which Jonathan has conducted himself since day one.”

The Flyer has written about Skrmetti’s moves since he was sworn in in September here, here, here, here, and here. He was also loud and proud about Gas Stove-Gate.

On Tuesday, Clemmons listed ways he thought Skrmetti used his office politically. Here’s his list: 

• [Skrmetti] headlined an event hosted by IWN, an ultra-conservative women’s group, titled “We Know What a Woman Is” to praise new discriminatory state laws 

• Used state resources and personnel to promote a fundraising campaign for anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” to celebrate the anniversary of the Dobbs decision

• Unnecessarily entered into an agreed order in a federal lawsuit filed by a California gun rights group to overturn a state law regarding firearms permits

• Unnecessarily involved his office in a suit involving a Kentucky wedding photographer who refused to perform services for a same-sex wedding

• Unnecessarily supported a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn a rule allowing the U. S. Department of Veteran Affairs to provide access to abortions and abortion counseling for veterans

• Unnecessarily joined a Texas lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s border patrol policies

• Unnecessarily joined yet another lawsuit against Yelp that would end a disclaimer the online company uses on advertisements for “crisis pregnancy centers”

• Unnecessarily filed a brief supporting Florida’s ban on using Medicaid funds for gender transition procedures

• Using taxpayer money to beef up his office, adding a 10-attorney “strategic litigation unit” to continue fighting for what Skrmetti calls “proactive litigation.”

Clemmons said: “Nowhere among the dozens of statutes in the Tennessee code is there an authorization for the Attorney General to use taxpayer resources and his office to promote his own political agenda or that of his political party.”

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Officials Without Borders: TN Gets Involved at the Texas Border, Florida Gender Identity Case

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee visits Tennessee National Guard troops in Texas in 2021. Credit: State of Tennessee

Tennessee state Republican leaders are inserting themselves (and even the Tennessee National Guard) into other states, and one is getting blasted for his troubles. 

Last week, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced he was sending 100 Guard troops to Texas “to secure the U.S. Southern border amid an ongoing national security crisis and surging drug crisis being fueled by an open border.” This week, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined the state’s name to a fracas in Florida over a gender identity case in a school. 

Two weeks ago, Texas Governor Greg Abbot invited other states to support “Operation Lone Star” to secure the U.S./Mexico border after expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era covid policy that allowed the U.S. to quickly turn away migrants.    

“America continues to face an unprecedented border crisis that threatens our nation’s security and the safety of Tennesseans,” Lee said in a statement last week. “The federal government owes Americans a plan to secure our country, and in the meantime, states continue to answer this important call to service.”

The Guard troops were to deploy at the end of May. They were slated to be patrolling the border and adding additional security there. They were to also help clear roads and routes, place barriers, and remove debris. Also, the Tennessee troops were to be helping to staff outposts on the border. 

Lee sent 300 Tennessee National Guard troops to the border in July 2021, at the time calling it “the most severe border crisis we’ve seen in 20 years.” Those troops were also requested by Abbott. Lee promised more troops for border security in December 2021 to be sent in 2022, but it’s unclear if they were deployed. The July 2021 move by Lee earned him blowback from some who called it a political stunt.    

Many expressed similar feelings (on Twitter anyway) about Lee’s most recent move to send Tennessee troops into another state in the name of national security. 

But the move had its share of supporters (on Twitter), too.

Meanwhile, state AG Skrmetti joined a coalition of 21 other states’ AGs on a legal brief, inserting themselves and the power they wield in a family-and-school matter near Tallahassee from 2020.    

A news release from the AG’s office said back in 2020 two parents told their child’s school that the child was experiencing “gender confusion.” The parents didn’t want anyone at school to change the child’s name or use “they/them pronouns.” But Skrmetti said school officials met “secretly” with the child about it all and they never told the parents.

Jonathan Skrmetti (Credit: tncourts.gov)

The AGs want a court to reverse a lower court’s ruling in the matter and “reaffirm parents’ longstanding, and fundamental, right to be informed of critical information about their child’s mental health, and well-being.” 

They argue that students must get parental consent to ”vote, enlist in the military without parental consent, and drink alcohol.” Further, they said school’s can’t treat a student’s depression or other mental health issues without involving parents, and that have “no duty or right to keep parents in the dark about gender-related distress either.”

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Trial Here Will Test New Law Stripping Local DAs of Post-Conviction Review

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Court arguments are set to begin in Memphis on Friday in a case that will test a new state law that stripped local control of post-conviction proceedings in capital cases and granted it to the Tennessee Attorney General.

In capital cases, individuals often seek a review of their convictions, requesting a different judge to assess evidence, determine intellectual disability, competency for execution, and other factors in the hopes of obtaining a reduced sentence. This process is known as collateral review.

Previously, local district attorneys represented the state in these cases. However, a bill passed by the Republican-dominated Tennessee General Assembly and signed by Republican Governor Bill Lee granted this authority to Republican Tennessee Attorney General and Reporter Jonathan Skrmetti.

“The attorney general and reporter will have exclusive control over the state’s defense of the request for collateral review,” stated the bill. “The attorney general and reporter will not be bound by any stipulations, concessions, or agreements made by a district attorney general regarding a request for collateral review. This amendment prohibits a trial court from issuing a final order granting relief in a request for collateral review until the attorney general and reporter files a response to the request.”

The House bill was filed in January, but it felt largely under the radar, primarily focusing on the requirement for law enforcement agencies to inventory sexual assault kits.

However, an amendment removed all of that language and completely re-wrote the bill to give the state AG control in these post-conviction cases. The legislature passed the bill in mid-April, and the governor signed it into law later that month. 

“This sudden move appears to be a response to the choices of voters in both Davidson County and Shelby County, who elected prosecutors to support more restorative and less punitive policies,” read a statement at the time from Tennesseeans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. 

Larry McKay, who received two death sentences for the murders of two store clerks in Shelby County in 1981, has now requested a court review of previously unexamined evidence in his case. Despite the new law, his attorney seeks disqualification of the “unelected” Tennessee Attorney General from the review.

McKay argues that the new law infringes on the responsibilities of local district attorneys, thereby violating the Tennessee Constitution. Additionally, he contends that the drastic alteration of the legislation violates the state constitution.

In support of McKay’s request, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy wants to review the new evidence. In a letter this month, Mulroy said, “The newly enacted statute is an unconstitutional effort to divest and diminish the authority granted to Tennessee’s District Attorneys General by the Tennessee Constitution. The new statute violates the voting rights of such voters because it strips material discretion from District Attorneys, who are elected by the qualified voters of the judicial district.”

State attorneys argue that McKay has sought review of his case multiple times in various courts. They challenge the arguments put forth by his attorney, asserting that the new statute does not violate the state constitution. They further note that McKay may not even get the desired outcome if the new evidence is reviewed.

“The General Assembly was entitled to take that statuary power away from the district attorneys and give it to the Attorney General in capital cases,” reads the court document. “They have done just that and their mandate must be followed.”

Memphis Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan is scheduled to preside over the case and hear arguments on Friday at 10 a.m.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

State Attorney General’s Budget Up $2.2M to Fight Feds, Cities

State Capitol (Photo: Tennessee State Government)

Facing a spate of legal battles with Tennessee cities and the federal government, the Attorney General’s Office enters this year with a new “strategic litigation unit” and heftier budget.

As part of a $56.2 billion budget for fiscal 2023-24, the Legislature approved 10 more positions at a cost of $2.25 million for Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.

That gives the office a $52.95 million payroll for 363 positions with an average salary of $146,600. Including operating costs, the office’s budget will hit nearly $6.75 million on July 1, up almost 9 percent from this year’s total. The total includes $5.1 million from a market adjustment recommended by the Ernst & Young study conducted for executive department pay.

That figure also contains $5,078,500 for a grab bag of legal expenses such as filing fees, expert witness expenses and contracts, in addition to outside counsel on a wide variety of cases ranging from opioid litigation to TennCare investigations. The office spent $5 million on those items this fiscal year, matching the amount the state spent this year and $6 million in fiscal 2021-22.

The 10-attorney special unit was discussed in-depth during budget hearings, Chief of Staff Brandon Smith says, and will focus on “proactive litigation defending the separation of powers and the constitutional rights of Tennesseans, the defense of state laws presenting significant federalism issues, and pursue transparency and accountability for certain corporate activities that undermine the democratic process and harm consumers.”

Not a full year into the job, Skrmetti doesn’t necessarily have a different philosophy than his predecessor, Herbert Slatery, but appears to be taking a slightly more active role against what he considers federal incursions.

For instance, the Attorney General’s Office joined a national effort to stop President Joe Biden’s Administration from putting new regulations on ovens, stoves, dishwashers and refrigerators. Skrmetti also joined 23 states in requesting a court injunction on an Environmental Protection Agency rule to expand federal authority over bodies of water nationwide.

In yet another case, Skrmetti filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit arguing against the Biden Administration’s attempt to make the abortion drug mifepristone available through the mail.

“Abortion is a matter of state law and Tennesseans, acting through their elected representatives, have chosen to prohibit elective abortions and to strictly regulate the use of abortion-inducing drugs such as mifepristone,” Skrmetti says.

The Attorney General’s Office also must deal with a challenge of the state’s new law prohibiting gender affirming care for minors, in addition to an injunction placed on the Legislature’s move to reduce the size of the Metro Nashville Council.

The Legislature’s critics, mainly House and Senate Democrats, are fond of saying the Republican-controlled chambers pass lawsuits, not legislation. Based on the Attorney General’s Office budget, they have a pretty solid argument.

Fresh off a three-year legal battle over the state’s Education Savings Accounts program, which provides public dollars to send low-income students to private schools, the state finds itself in another tussle with Metro Nashville over the new law to cut the Metro Council to 20 from 40. A state court judge put a temporary hold on that measure, forcing Skrmetti to issue a statement saying the state won’t appeal the decision but will allow the size of the council to take effect with the 2027 election.

Skrmetti contends the court left the 20-member cap on metropolitan councils intact when the majority concluded Metro’s plaintiffs are “not likely to succeed on their claim that it violates … the Tennessee Constitution.”

Metro Law Director Wally Dietz points out the trial court ruled unanimously that applying the council cut to this year’s election violates the Home Rule Amendment to the state Constitution. But while the court ruled 2-1 that Metro hasn’t proven its case on keeping the council at 40, the decision isn’t final.

Still expecting to prevail, Metro will make arguments against the cap that weren’t part of the initial injunction hearing. The court is expected to hold a hearing later this year.

Meanwhile, Metro Nashville’s legal office is concerned about other bills targeting the local government and is considering other possible lawsuits, according to Dietz. Those include measures to give top state officials control over appointments to the airport and sports authorities and dismantling a community oversight board that handles complaints against the police department.

Costs start to rise

Since Republican Gov. Bill Lee took office in 2019, the Attorney General’s Office has grown nearly every year. 

The fiscal 2019-20 budget had 341 positions for former Attorney General Herbert Slatery with a $36.18 million payroll and $1.56 million spent on outside counsel, compared to $6 million a year ago.

In the final year of Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration, the Attorney General’s Office had 341 positions with a total cost of $30.24 million, including $1.16 million in special litigation costs.

Early in Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s tenure, the AG’s Office cut personnel to 320 with a payroll of $24.7 million and special litigation of only $1.83 million in fiscal 2012-13. 

Since then, the number of attorneys working for the state has crept up, reflecting an increase in the amount of legal work.

Democratic lawmakers argue that much of the litigation is self-inflicted.

“It’s just the continued bad legislation that’s coming out of the General Assembly. I guess they need more attorneys to be able to defend the multiple lawsuits the General Assembly forces them into,” says state Rep. Bo Mitchell. “Whether it’s preventing children from getting health care to taking over the city of Nashville, it’s never-ending.”

Mitchell, a Nashville Democrat, says many of the attorney general’s tasks come at the direction of the Legislature. 

“It keeps coming back to the same place,” he says.

In fact, the attorney general does take direction from the governor and legislative leaders.

It’s just the continued bad legislation that’s coming out of the General Assembly. I guess they need more attorneys to be able to defend the multiple lawsuits the General Assembly forces them into.

– Rep. Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville

Skrmetti, however, made the call on his own to reach an agreement with a California firearms organization to lower Tennessee’s gun-carry age to 18 from 21 under the permit-less carry law. He then consulted the state’s top leaders.  

Rep. Charlie Baum, a member of the House finance committee, points out the Attorney General’s Office has a heavy workload, going after opioid distributors much as it once fought the tobacco industry, in addition to dealing with federal and local issues.

Skrmetti’s office recently announced Tennessee received a $163.9 million payment from major tobacco companies from a 1998 settlement that resolved the state’s lawsuit for violations of consumer protection laws and deceptive marketing practices. All told, the state has gotten $3.8 billion through the settlement.

The state also joins multiple lawsuits against the federal government where states are suing the federal government for items considered forms of “overreach” through its legislation and policies, Baum notes.

“These tend to be the red states that are the ones more apt to sue the federal government,” he says.

Baum also believes the state is running into higher legal costs, in part, because of “activist” judges, and he points toward the years-long litigation over private school vouchers as proof.

In that case, the Davidson County trial court and Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled the state violated the Home Rule Amendment by starting the voucher program in Metro Nashville and Shelby County school districts without getting local approval. The Tennessee Supreme Court, however, ruled in favor of the state using a technicality to enable the voucher program to take effect.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

TN AG Condemns “Political Violence” On Actions Against Tennessee Holler, Lawmakers

Credit: Tennessee Holler/Twitter, Tennessee State Capitol/Facebook

The Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti condemned “political violence” in an official statement Thursday saying, “Tennessee has suffered through an awful season.”

That season includes the loss of three students and school officials in a deadly shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, nine Fort Campbell soldiers killed in a recent helicopter crash near the state line, and more than a dozen Tennesseans killed in severe storms over the weekend. 

While Skrmetti said many “have responded with our best,” he said “unfortunately, some have chosen a different path” and pointed to two recent developments. 

Tennessee Attorney General John Skrmetti (credit TN.gov)

On Saturday, an unknown assailant shot bullets into the Williamson County home of Justin Kanew, founder of the Tennessee Holler, an online Tennessee news source. Kanew and his family, including his sleeping children, were inside the home at the time.  

”This violence has no place in a civilized society and we are thankful no one was physically hurt,” Kanew tweeted Saturday. “The authorities have not completed their investigation and right now we do not know for sure the reason for this attack.” 

”I don’t know him personally, though I know I often disagree with him,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “Regardless of any differences of opinion, though, as a dad and as an attorney general I cannot tolerate this attack against him and his family.”

The AG also said state lawmakers are receiving “graphic, anonymous death threats.” Skrmetti did not elaborate. 

However, the alleged threats come as the Tennessee General Assembly is embattled in a tense stand-off on gun control in the wake of the Covenant shooting. Thousands of protestors have gathered in and on the ground of the Tennessee State Capitol to call for gun control in recent days. 

Hundreds of protesters gathered again on Thursday in support of the “Tennessee Three,” Reps. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), and Justin Jones (D-Nashville), who face expulsion from the state House for leading a protest about gun control on the House floor last Thursday. 

“No Tennessean should have to worry about their safety, or the safety of their family, because of the opinions they express,” Skrmetti said. “No lawmaker should face injury or death for serving as an elected representative of the people. 

“Disagreement is a good thing. Democracy depends on disagreement. Each of us has a right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to express our opinions. There are limits on how we express those opinions, and those limits are governed by the legislature, by the courts, and ultimately by the people.”

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Lawmakers, AG Put Extra Pressure on TikTok

State Capitol (Photo: Tennessee State Government)

Tennessee lawmakers and the Tennessee Attorney General are putting extra pressure on TikTok in the wake of a report that showed some of its employees stole data from American journalists. 

The popular app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and has been a center of controversy for months on data safety concerns. Officials, including FBI director Chris Wray, have warned lawmakers that the app could be used to steal personal information, creating a national security concern.

Those concerns earned bans on the app from devices used by the White House, U.S. defense agencies, and the U.S. Senate. In December, Tennessee joined 18 other states to ban the app for state uses in some way. Here, the app is banned from all state-owned devices. 

In December, TikTok admitted that four of its employees accessed and stole information from U.S. journalists. Those employees were promptly fired, and TikTok maintains its app is secure and poses no threat to U.S. national security. But the report ramped up suspicions about the service and calls for it to be banned.

Last week, Tennessee House members passed a bill that would ban TikTok and WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging service, on public university wifi networks. The bill would deny access to any platform operated or hosted by a company in the People’s Republic of China to anyone — students, faculty, staff, or the public — on those university networks.    

In his presentations on the bill, Sen. John Lundberg (R-Bristol) did not explicitly state that China could use the apps to access university data. But he called them a “security threat.” 

“We do not need to provide access [to the apps] on our university websites for that because our universities are conducting a great deal of research,” he said. 

As an example, Lundberg noted that Senate Speaker Sen. Randy McNally’s [R-Oak Ridge] district is home to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The facility is owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, working on topics from artificial intelligence to nuclear energy. Lundberg said the facility has a partnership with the University of Tennessee and suggested that by “the amount of information that is collected, we do not need to open that door.”

A House committee is set to review the bill soon. 

Meanwhile, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti believes TikTok may be in violation of state consumer protection laws. He said the social media site may be providing and promoting its platform to minors, children, and young adults here, “causing profound harms to these vulnerable users.”

“We are asking the court to order TikTok to preserve and produce evidence for our investigation into social media’s impact on children’s mental health,” General Skrmetti said. “In light of the urgent importance of this issue, TikTok’s obstruction is unconscionable. If TikTok continues to flout the law, the state attorneys general have the tools to respond accordingly.”

On Monday, Skrmetti filed a motion to force TikTok to preserve documents and produce internal messages in a request-for-information motion served on the company by the AG’s office nearly a year ago.

He said the company’s lawyers confirmed that TikTok allowed its employees to keep active a feature on its internal communication network, Lark, to delete messages within seven days. Skrmetti said this increases the chances that employees have deleted information relevant to the the AG’s investigation.  

For this and more, Skrmetti said the company “has engaged in a pattern of delay” in the investigation and filed a motion for the court to hold regular status conferences with all parties.  

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

New AG, Same Old Conservative Partisanship

Jonathan Skrmetti (Photo: tncourts.gov)

Tennessee’s new Attorney General, a former Memphian, is holding to the same conservative partisanship as his predecessor. 

Jonathan Skrmetti was sworn in as Tennessee’s 28th Attorney General on September 1st, beginning an eight-year term. He was appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court in August. 

Skrmetti follows the death-sentence pushing, private-school-voucher loving, gender-identity discriminating, cannabis-law over-reaching, vaccine-mandate fighting, election-meddling, and gay-marriage opponent Herbert Slatery. 

From some of the first news releases (i.e. the stuff he wants the public to know about), Skrmetti seems like he’ll continue Slatery’s work. While the news release from his swearing-in ceremony had Skrmetti proclaiming he’d advocate “for the rights and freedoms of all Tennesseans,” he quickly went to work against some Tennessee school kids. 

Skrmetti carried on Slatery’s fight against a set of Biden-Administration rules that would allow federal protections for gender identity in school programs. Instead of fighting for “all Tennesseans” — like trans kids — Skrmetti claimed the protections would “promote sex-based discrimination and threaten constitutional rights.” The argument made it pretty clear Skrmetti aimed to fight for only some Tennesseans.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee stopped the rules from going into effect in July. The U.S. Department of Education paused the regulations for a two-month period of public comment. Last week, Skrmetti led 19 other state AGs (from the usual bastions of “freedom for all” like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas) in a letter to the feds, blasting the proposed rules. 

He said expanding Title IX, the landmark rule that bans sex-baed discrimination in schools, state university employees would be forced to use “certain pronouns and other referential terms.” This would violate the First Amendment, Skrmetti claimed. 

His letter wrings hands over who can play on what sports teams, giving science-sounding arguments on the differences in human bodies, and that new rules “would not be fair to female athletes.” 

As for “student and faculty safety,” Skrmetti’s letter contains the word “bathroom” 24 times. He frightens with some news stories and some court records that apparently prove that “public toilets … are often the locale of [numerous crimes].” He notes the Education Department “fails to recognize that its new rules will enable this nefarious conduct.”

Three days after attacking school equity, Skrmetti joined another multi-state effort to “demand” President Joe Biden label fentanyl a “Weapon of Mass Destruction.” While this move may be a bit more bipartisan (it had support form AGs in Guam, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Connecticut), the Bush-era language made it sound conservative. 

Fentanyl is a cheap, lethal synthetic opioid that is widely spreading and killing thousands. The AGs’ motivation to get the feds to help them stop its spread is plain. Their strategy to get there is not. They know this. In the letter, they said they understand the criticisms. It’s a drug control problem, not a weapons problem. Also, other than one Russian incident, no one has yet weaponized fentanyl. 

However, “the fact that classifying fentanyl would have an ancillary effect of preventing the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans would be an additional, beneficial reason to classify fentanyl,” the letter reads. “Given fentanyl’s lethality, low cost, and abundant availability, waiting for some state or non-state actor to utilize it as weapon before it is classified as such seems to be the same type of reasoning that kept the government from investigating foreign nationals learning to fly, but not land planes in the lead up to September 11th.”

On Tuesday, Skrmetti was back on the partisan front lines, this time protecting gun owners from credit card companies. 

Skrmetti and 24 other AGs warned American Express, Mastercard, and Visa that their creation of a merchant category code for firearms “is potentially a violation of consumer protection and antitrust laws.”

“Giant financial companies must not use their combined market power to circumvent our representative democracy,” Skrmetti said in a news release. “As Attorney General, I protect the people of Tennessee from corporate collusion that threatens to undermine their constitutional rights. Working together with my colleagues from other states, we will marshal the full scope of our lawful authority to stop this abuse.”

Skrmetti spent a lot of time in Memphis. He was a federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division and then served as Assistant U.S. Attorney here. He was a partner at Butler Snow in Memphis. He then went to work as Chief Deputy Attorney General and as chief counsel to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. 

Skrmetti, his wife, and their four children now live in Franklin and attend Harpeth Hills Church of Christ, according to a news release from his office.