As is well known, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is committed to stopping the illegal downloads of music by college students.   In targeting 17 students at the University of Oregon, the RIAA sent subpoenas to the University in order to secure evidence from the University’s computer system.   The University, whose long time President Dave Frohnmayer is the former Attorney General of Oregon, responded by Attorney General Hardy Myers' office going to federal court and moving to block the subpoenas by asserting that they were “overbroad and burdensome.”  

In documents filed in the court and signed by Deputy Attorney General Peter Shepard, the state asserted that “the university’s efforts thus far have been met by accusations that it is obstructing the process and even conspiring with law breakers.  Those accusations are not warranted.  The record in this case suggests that the larger issue may not be whether students are sharing copyrighting music, but whether investigative and litigation strategies are appropriate.” 

In an interview, Shepard told the Associated Press that “we do not think the university can be compelled to produce investigative work for the recording industry.”

Speaking from my personal experience of this week, it isn’t easy to get to Park City, Utah and back in a day.  The flight to Salt Lake was easy enough, but the van ride through the mountains to the ski resort where the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG)  was holding its annual meeting was far from pleasant.  Creeping along Interstate 80 in a snowstorm, it was unsettling to see all those cars off the road and ambulances sliding sideways in the slush.  I was Park City to discuss the future of the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School (http://www/stateag.org) and then take a red eye back to New York so that I could teach.  

After I left, the new U.S.Attorney General Michael Mukasey made the same trek – although presumably in a more commodious fashion – to make his first public policy statement during which he encouraged more states to add information to their data bases in order to assure that mentally ill people will not be able to purchase guns. 

More important than these remarks, which could have been delivered anywhere, is the fact that General Mukasey made such an effort to meet with the country’s chief law enforcement officers.  The symbolism of his travel was not lost on state attorneys general who over the last three years have felt seriously estranged from then-Attorney General Gonzales.  By simply showing up – and without mentioning his predecessor – our new Attorney General made it clear that he and the state attorneys general are on the same side.

And that is a very good thing.

Md. AG Doug Gansler has sued a Baltimore Judge for illegally dumping hundreds of tons of buidling debris that includes truckloads of drywall, cinderblocks, broken bathroom fixtures and other landfill rubble along the waterfront of his Riviera Beach house.  The Judge is not happy.

I did this once myself.   Almost thirty years ago I forced a Maine judge to actually tear down a house he had illegally constructed on a sand dune.   That Judge wasn't very happy either.

He said I was persuing a political agenda.

On the one hand, it is a very simple question with a very simple answer.

A fired state employee becomes a whistleblower by going to the Office of Attorney General with a claim that the boss illegally destroyed public records.  The career AAG who prosecutes violations of the state sunshine law assigns an investigator and makes a decision.  

Yawn......

On the other hand, it is a very complex question with no answer.

In the State of Missouri, GOP Governor Roy Blunt, a scion of the state's most prominent political family, fires a lawyer in his office who then goes to Dem. Attorney General, Jay Nixon, who is running full tilt against Blunt in the 2008 election, and says Blunt rejected legal advice and illegally trashed an unknown number of emails.

AG Nixon hasn't been in office for twenty years (sixteen as AG) for nothing, so he  appoints two prominent Republicans as Special Assistants - one to investigate the charge and another to make prosecutorial decisions.   His efforts at blunting the Blunt onslaught, of course, go for naught.   Blunt declares the appointment of the special prosecutors "political" and his counsel says it is "unprecedented."

For the people of Missouri, the issue is one of access to public information, character and fairness.

For the rest of us, it is still a yawn.

Three states held elections in 2007 for the Office of Attorney General.   The offices in all three - Ky, La, and Ms - have been held by Democrats since as long as anyone can remember and the 2007 results did not produce a party change.  Of particular significance is that all three Democratic candidates trounced their opponents by at least 20%.   In other words, despite millions of dollars being spent and two new faces, the party identification of the AG remains the same. This phenomenon puzzles me in part because the these same voters have been chosing Republicans for virtually every other elected position.   In La and Ms, the AG is now the only statewide official who is a Democrat.

In other states, the situation seems exactly reversed.   In Pennsylvania, a blue state that is getting bluer, the AG has always been a Republican.  In the blue states of Michigan and Washington, conservative GOP AG's enjoy strong popular support.

My long held theory is that the voters like an independent attorney general and tend to split their votes for that position far more than any other, but I may be wrong.  Perhaps there is no trend and these races are decided based on the tone and the personalities of individual candidates.   At the present time there are eighteen states where the AG and the Governor are of differing parties, but is that number high or low? 

I just don't know.

Awhile back, eleven state AG's and a number of environmental groups challenged the Naional Highway Safety Administration's rule on fuel economy.  Last week, a panel of the Nith Circuit agreed with slapped down the rules because they placed a zero value on reducing emissions of carbon dioxide that - to everyone on the planet except those who currently hold power in D.C. - have an impact on global warming.   The rules also left SUV's out of the rules altogether.

The Alliance of Automobile Manaufacterers (who represent the Big Three that is fast becoming the Little Three) are pounding their aging drums and decrying judicial activism. 

The real story behind the court's decision is that it was a one day story.  These cases are sadly becoming routine.  In case after case, court after court - almost always at the request of state attorneys general - are overcoming the presumptions granted administrative agencies and saying, "hey, go back to work.  Respect science. Read the law. Do your job."

This isn't the way it supposed to be, of course, because our environmental federal agencies are supposed to be on the side of the law and our collective futures.  Perhaps sometime soon we can all get back to having our federal government make rules for all of us and not just the powerful few.   When that happens, the AG's can get back to working with our federal government instead of against it.

I am delighted to see that Az. AG Terry Goddard is continuing the practice of utilizing volunteers in his office.  In continuing the initiative of his predecessors Napalitano and Woods, Goddard's office wisely taps into a wealth of energy and life expeience in the handling of routine consumer and civil rights cases. I initiatied the practice of using volunteers in Maine over 25 years ago and that even today Maine men and women, ably trained by long time AAG Jim McKenna, lend experienced hands to their neighbors who are facing consumer issues.  

I do not know how many other offices continue the practice of using volunteers, but I wish that they all did.

Much as been written about the fact that declining circulation figures of smaller newspapers has led to few resources being available for those papers to compete with emerging sources of information. It is therefore heartening to see that the Dayton Daily News, our 82nd largest newspaper, assigned someone to read over 4200 emails sent and received by Ohio AG Marc Dann.  The results of this in depth research ran in yesterday's Daily News and must have been devoured by local residents as they watched their hapless Bengals eke out a victory over the equally hapless Ravens.

It appears that Dann personally made sure that the college student son of a Congresswoman was paid for his $10 an hour job.  It also is quite apparent from the emails that Dann wants publicity for his work, tells an occasional lame joke and on at least one occasion was profane.

Not appearing in the story is the fact, known to any public official, that the Daily News' request for all of Dann's emails meant that state employees of the Office of Attorney General had to be taken off their regular duties in order to redact the emails so as to protect from premature disclosure on going criminal and civil investigations and strategy involving state litigation.  

 Although my internet research this morning indicates that no other publication has picked up the story, it nonetheless serves as a reminder to the world that no public official is ever allowed the freedom to be profane, tell bad jokes, get publicity for his or her public work or make sure that a college kid gets paid on time without having it become public.

I suppose that is a good thing, isn't it?

As totally expected, Ms. AG Jim Hood cruised to reelection for a second term (60%) becoming the only Democrat to hold statewide office in Mississippi.  Viciously attacked by the insurance industry in this storm ravaged state, Hood took it all in stride and remains a force both in his own state and nationally.  Also as totally expected, John Conway, a charismatic trial lawyer, swept to victory in Kentucky and in doing so kept the KY AG office in Democratic hands where it has been since Reconstruction.

For me the most interesting result was the election of my old friend and colleague Steve Beshear at the Governor of Kentucky.   Steve and I were new attorneys general together twenty five years ago and we always seemed to see things the same way.   Steve took a couple of major defeats in runs for other offices and with his new family seemed pretty much resolved to a life of child rearing and private practice.  The incumbent GOP Governor became enmeshed in scandal, however, and now both duty and the voters have called Steve back to the public sector. I wish him all the best as he joins the nine other AG's who currently serve their state's as Governor..