3 February 3, 2026 - Week 2 – Tools available for an Attorney General to address Climate change, guns and abortion. Guest Speaker: NJ SG Jeremy Fiegelbaum, '14 3 February 3, 2026 - Week 2 – Tools available for an Attorney General to address Climate change, guns and abortion. Guest Speaker: NJ SG Jeremy Fiegelbaum, '14
Attorneys general are armed with a host of legal authorty to adddress our isssues. While it is litigation that breaks into the public sphere is is often the invisible work state attorneys general do with their Governors, state agencies and legislatures that actually makes concrete changes. Because state goverrnments will have to assume many of the functions that historically have been addressed by the federal government wewill read, discuss and listen to visitors
One particular state statute we will study is each state's Unfair and Deceptive Practices Act. (UDAP) Orgininally designed to address traditiional consumer fraud it is now the statute of choice for attorneys general on all sides of the climate change, abortion and gun issues. While each state differs on the breadth of its coverage and the remedies available of its Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices Act (UDAP), it is a core duty of every attorney general to be involved in consumer protection. Additionally, due to the breadth of pre-suit investigatory authority using a Civil Investigative Demand (CID), AGs have powerful tools not available to most civil litigants. AGs use their broad consumer protection authority to investigate and sue anyone in state court engaged in “unfair or deceptive” practices either in single state actions or as part of multistate coalitions.
3.1. Bio of SG Jeremy Fiegelbaum, '14
3.2. Massachusetts Consumer Protection Statute: M.G.L. ch. 93A
3.3. State attorneys general flex new muscle with deceptive trade practices laws, Reuters (Feb. 23, 2023)
3.4. TX AG is stretching the boundaries of consumer protection laws to pursue political targets, Tex. Tribune (May 30, 2024)
3.5. Mo. AG Andrew Bailey Secures Historic $24 Billion Judgment Against China for Unleashing the COVID, March 7, 2025
3.6. Ky AG Coleman Sues AI Chatbot Company for Preying on Children, January 8, 2026
3.7. Attorney General Ken Paxton Secures Major Agreement with Crest Toothpaste Manufacturer to Protect Children from Excessive Fluoride Exposure | January 9, 2026
3.8. ‘Not an isolated incident’: Dem AGs show a ‘trend of hostility’ toward pregnancy centers, pro-life advocates say, Dec. 27, 2023
3.9. Trump’s New Line of Attack Against the Media Gains Momentum, New York Times, Feb 7, 2025, David Enrich
3.10 Supplemental - Tools 3.10 Supplemental - Tools
3.11 Informal Historical Multistate Overview - Jim Tierney - January 11, 2024 3.11 Informal Historical Multistate Overview - Jim Tierney - January 11, 2024
To: Reading Group
From: Jim Tierney
Date: January 11, 2024
Re: What really happened to AG
Just before getting on a plane last December, I received an email from a dear friend who teaches at that other law school in New Haven. The email read (in part) “I have a line in a paper where I talk about the AG multistate, and I’d love to say who started it/how it came into existence…so I’m going to the source…”
So being a good pal and sitting on the plane I snapped off this response for her. I could back it all up of this with traditional lawyer like evidence but with no internet I made it pretty freewheeling!
I am sharing it with you, my Reading Group, because this informal account can fill some gaps for you without forcing you into a series of law review articles that are wrong as often as they are right. I’m also pretty much leaving out the endless challenges by AGs to anything a President not of their party wants to do and sticking to antitrust, environment and consumer protection.
December 16, 2023
The beginnings of Multistate? Well, here we go…
It really isn’t complicated, but the truth of the matter escapes traditional law school pedagogy because it really isn’t written down anywhere. So let me to give you some background that is the result of decades of experience, a still sharp memory, and much thought. Quote it or not. I hope this is what you need.
Resources – 1970’s and 1980s.
AG jurisdiction dramatically expanded in the late 1970s and early 80’s. Congress helped with the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) that allowed states to go to federal court on antitrust – singly or in groups. SCOTUS came up with some great decisions supporting the independence of AG’s to make antitrust decisions that were not in harmony with the FTC and the USDOJ and multistate was born.
But Congress also did something else. It streamed federal money through the Safe Streets Act - an initiative of then President Jimmy Carter - directly to AG offices. Repeat, not to the states generally – where Governors got the money – but to AG offices specifically for consumer and antitrust work. The offices quickly hired and set up Public Protection Divisions capable of moving quickly without going through any other state or federal agency.
At the same time, Congress also streamed money to states for environmental purposes direct to state agencies so that states could comply with new federal laws and regulations required by evolving federal law. (Clean Air, Clean Water, Endangered Species, etc. ).
Because AGs are the counsel to state environmental agencies this federal money was channeled from the state environmental agencies into the AG office budgets who then set up environmental divisions. These lawyers assisted their client agencies draft and enforce required State Implementation Plans (SIP) that had to meet the minimum federal requirement although states were allowed to set standards higher than the EPA if they chose to do so and many did. When in 1981 the Reagan Administration’s EPA rolled back the Carter Administration’s federal regs, most states maintained standards higher than the EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch’s decisions. There were lawsuits challenging independent state action, but again, the courts and the public were supportive and many of them were done through a multistate process.
The first state AG multistate efforts were therefore federally funded. In January 1981, OMB Director David Stockman – a very smart guy who alone in DC seemed to understand the power all this gave to AGs to challenge the Reagan Administration - desperately tried to impound this money. In other words, he attempted to recall the money that had been appropriated to the states.
In my first days in office in 1981 we sued. Tierney v. Stockman. We won. He lost. Multistate AG actions were now seriously underway.
Jurisdiction
State legislatures were supportive of AG multistate initiatives. Being pro consumer was then popular and bipartisan with local Chambers of Commerce were supportive who wanted AG’s to get rid of the bottom feeders in their local business community. When the federal money dried up, legislatures made up the difference. Legislatures also supported state environmental initiatives, so the support was real and bipartisan.
Focusing on consumer and antitrust, every state legislature passed state laws giving AGs essentially unreviewable authority to unilaterally launch investigations (CID), litigate, collect fines and assess treble damages. It also authorized private action consumer protection cases. (More below on this.)
All of it was to be presumed to be done in single state cases. USDOJ and the FTC were supposed to do the interstate cases, but states were never specifically preempted. When the Reagan Administration attempted to preempt curtail state action the AG’s were pushed back and responded collectively in court winning almost every time. All these cases were fully bipartisan.
Remember, the consumer laws are a state law and AG’s could go to state court – talk about forum shopping! – and generate legal fees back to the state coffers and treble damages for consumers. Most of the state cases remained single state until technology and economic nationalization made them multistate. But the multistate consumer litigation was and still made up of a collection of state court matters and not federal cases. The antitrust litigation was both but is still mostly federal.
The Reagan Administration made all sorts of dumb mistakes when dealing with the states making it easy for the AGs to prevail. With federal errors – then as now almost no one in the federal government or academia understands what it is that states do - and a supportive SCOTUS with consumers having their back, the AGs almost never lost. Rather than defend in state courts corporate defendants figured out they should settle with relatively unsophisticated AGs and there was peace and justice and bipartisan love in the land.
The environmental cases ran parallel to consumer and antitrust. Indeed, state legislatures gave their AGs environmental authority independent of their agency to speed things along. At the time it was popular to clean up toxic dumps and drink clean water. There were many Love Canals. Ah, those halcyon days….
Most of the environmental multistate were challenges to Reagan EPA decisions and states began to lose – my office faced a DC panel with both Judges Scalia and Bork – but Bush ’41 was less combative, and a modicum of cooperation emerged.
Most of the environmental cases were licensing and single state, but when when boundaries were crossed AAG’s cooperated. (I chaired the NAAG Environmental Committee. It has long since been abolished along with the NAAG Civil Rights Committee.) As Sen Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) said, brilliantly quoting me without attribution from my Congressional Testimony, “what goes up must come down,” and that simple logic seemed to prevail.
Economy and Technology
Then the world changed. As our economy became driven by technology and fully integrated, violations were national in nature and AG offices were able to use technology to chase the bad guys over state lines.
Technology - In the early 1980s my staff would drive to Boston and meet with other AAG’s from New England and New York. They would sit around and literally write – longhand – briefs that would be typed by the secretarial staff of the Ma AG. They would then sit and collectively edit, develop strategies, and soon negotiate settlements together.
By 1990, FAX machines were appeared, and then they did it that way. Email and website arrived five years later and, well, you get that picture! It became very easy for AGs to operate over state lines.
Economic integration - In the early 1980’s, I sued what we laughingly called a huge “chain” of Maine drugstores for a consumer pricing violation. There were 16 stores. It was locally owned. We won.
By 2000, Maine drug stores were now Wal Green and CVS and their practices were the same as every other Wal Green and CVS in the country.
Chasing just the drug store in your state no longer made sense, and technology allowed AAG’s to discover the same violation everywhere. More and more cases were inherently multistate.
Tobacco
Then the tobacco cases came along and we settled them all in 1995-1996. This memo is already too long but let me just say those cases took seven years of my life – four fighting the tobacco industry and three fighting the greedy plaintiff lawyers the AG’s had hired. Details upon request. These cases alerted the plaintiff bar to some serious profit-making opportunities. Details also upon request.
SCOTUS
Then SCOTUS – without realizing the impact their decisions would have on AG’s – messed up everything.
First, it abolished all campaign financing laws making dark money possible and essentially forcing the creation of the Republican AG Association (First Chair? The Hon. Bill Pryor of Alabama) and later the Democrat AG Association. RAGA and DAGA raise a great deal of money and are now obviously now bigger and stronger and less transparent than ever.
Second, SCOTUS virtually abolished consumer class action lawsuits by elevating consumer arbitration clauses. AG offices still had their UDAP authority so this forced matters that had been the subject of private suits into AG offices where AGs could deputize plaintiff counsel on a contingent basis.
And with no campaign limits the AG found an increased love for dark money and trial lawyers. Put this together – technology, economic integrations, no campaign finance laws, a dysfunctional Congress – and every AG from any state became a national player.
Of course, everyone in the AG world knows this to be true – it isn’t a secret! - and we now have a hybrid system that defies uniform characterization. The public protection divisions of some AG offices have shrunk and others have grown far larger and more sophisticated. Depending on the issue they can still often need the resources of the trial lawyers. Plaintiff lawyer retention is a totally nonpartisan effort – GOP AGs are increasingly utilizing plaintiff firms on national cases - and they often result in large cash settlements making AG offices revenue generators for state government. And in many states public protection staffs are funded by these settlements, an innovation championed by then Texas SG Ted Cruz. Again, details available upon request.
And of course, this means every law firm now has an “AG practice” consisting of a gaggle of former AGs and former specialized AAG’s who lobby their former colleagues.
Everyone is an expert.
Everyone makes money.
And I get sick.
3.12. Mo. Attorney General Bailey Issues Statement After Win in China COVID-19 Case | January 28, 2025
3.13. Seattle Children's Hospital Sues Texas AG over Trans Patient Records, Texas Tribune (Dec. 21, 2023)
3.14. Texas settling trans records fight with Seattle hospital, April 22, 2024
3.15 February 10, 2026 - Week 3 - State AGs and Abortion: Guest Speaker: Mississippi SG Scott Stewart 3.15 February 10, 2026 - Week 3 - State AGs and Abortion: Guest Speaker: Mississippi SG Scott Stewart
3.15.1. Bio of Mississippi SG Scott Stewart
3.15.2. Abortion in the United States Dashboard | KFF
3.15.3. Study finds more abortion, but less travel to other states for it | AP News - April 15, 2025
3.15.4. Guttmacher Institute Releases Data on State of Residence of US Abortion Patients Traveling for Care in 2024 | Guttmacher Institute, June 2025
3.15.5. Abortions in the US have increased since Roe v. Wader Overturned, National Review, August, 2024
3.15.6. San Antonio ends its abortion travel fund, Texas Trib. January 9, 2026
3.15.7. Idaho's biggest hospital says emergency flights for pregnant patients up sharply | KSFR - April 26, 2024
3.15.8. 8 Ways State Attorneys General Have Protected Abortion Rights Since the Fall of Roe v. Wade - Center for American Progress - July 13, 2023
3.15.9. Ne AG Hilgers Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Protect States’ Right to Regulate Abortion | Nebraska Attorney General - April 18, 2023
3.15.10. Mass. AG Campbell: New reproductive justice unit will take ‘intersectional approach’ to protecting care - masslive.com
3.15.11. Republican AGs argue abortion pills should be restricted because they cause population loss, Dec 25, 2024
3.15.12 Access to Abortion Medication/Pills/Mifepristone 3.15.12 Access to Abortion Medication/Pills/Mifepristone
3.15.13. US abortion pill access under fire: Summary of Lawsuits and regulatory battles to watch in 2026, Reuters, Jan 5, 2026
3.15.14. F.D.A. Decisions on Abortion Pill Were Based on Science, New Analysis Finds, NYT, Jan. 12, 2026
3.15.15. GOP push to restrict access to FDA-approved abortion pills, Spectrum, January 14, 2025
3.15.16. Abortion Pill Maker Enters Legal Fight Over F.D.A. Rules, NYT, Feb 25, 2025
3.15.17. Federal appeals court (2nd Cir) affirms that NY pregnancy centers are free to inform women about abortion-pill reversal – Alliance Defending Freedom - Dec 2, 2025
3.15.18 Criminalization, Restricting Travel, and "Exceptions" 3.15.18 Criminalization, Restricting Travel, and "Exceptions"
3.15.18.1 Shield Laws 3.15.18.1 Shield Laws
3.15.18.2. Opinion | The anti-abortion Alabama AG who won’t stop at the state line - The Washington Post - Ruth Marcus, '84 - May 16, 2024
3.15.18.3. Abortion Shield Laws: A New War Between the States, NYT, Feb 23, 2024
3.15.18.4. Tx AG Ken Paxton Sues Activist New York Doctor for Illegally Providing Abortion Drugs Across State Lines | Dec 13, 2024
3.15.18.5. N.Y. doctor charged with prescribing abortion pills to Louisiana girl, Washington Post, January 31, 2025
3.15.18.6. New York enacts shield law for abortion pill prescribers after Louisiana indictment, Courthouse News Service, Feb. 3, 2025
3.15.18.7. Texas judge fines New York doctor for sending abortion pills to Texas in Civil Case filed by the Texas AG : NPR - Feb 14, 2025
3.15.19. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall says he won't prosecute IVF families, providers - ABC News, Feb 23, 2024
3.15.20. Abortion Provider Won’t Be Extradited to Louisiana, N.Y. Governor Says, New York Times, February 13, 2025
3.15.21. Mo AG sues Planned Parenthood over Project Veritas video involving fictional girl • Missouri Independent, Feb 29, 2024
3.15.22. ‘Not an isolated incident’: Dem AGs show a ‘trend of hostility’ toward pregnancy centers, pro-life advocates say, Dec. 27, 2023
3.15.23. Republicans call on Az AG Kris Mayes to retract warning about anti-abortion pregnancy centers | KJZZ- (March 15, 2024)
3.15.24. After ADF sues, WA attorney general ends illegal campaign against pro-life pregnancy centers – Alliance Defending Freedom - May 28, 2024
3.15.25 State Constitutional Referenda 3.15.25 State Constitutional Referenda
3.15.26. What’s Next for State Abortion Ballot Initiatives? | KFF - Dec 18, 2024
3.15.27. Wisconsin District Attorney appeals ruling that cleared way for abortions to resume in state - CBS Minnesota, Dec 20, 2023
3.15.28. GOP seeking to head off ballot initiatives on abortion access, Florida's included - Florida Phoenix - Dec 8, 2023
3.15.29. Filing suggests Ohio AG believes at least part of six-week abortion ban is still constitutional | The Statehouse News, Feb 24, 2024
3.15.30. Mo AG Defends Pro-Life Abortion Laws Amid Legal Fight Over New Amendment| National Catholic Register, Dec 2024
3.15.31. Attorney General Tim Griffin certifies Arkansas Abortion Amendment ballot language | KARK - June 23, 2024
3.15.32. Arkansas Supreme Court upholds rejection of abortion rights petitions | AP News- Aug 22, 2024
3.15.33 National Impact of Dobbs (Optional) 3.15.33 National Impact of Dobbs (Optional)
3.15.34. Guest Essay Linda Greenhouse, The New Anti-Abortion Argument Takes Us Back to the 19th Century Nov. 18, 2024
3.15.35. Powerful Activists and Lawmakers Have Blocked Post-Roe Abortion Ban Exceptions — ProPublica
3.15.36. Rape Led to 64,000 Pregnancies in States With Abortion Bans | TIME - Jan 25, 2024
3.15.37. How Many Abortions Did the Post-Roe Bans Prevent?, New York Times (Nov. 22, 2023)
3.15.38 Mifepristone 3.15.38 Mifepristone
3.16 March 3, 2026 - Week 4 – – State AGs and Guns: Guest Speaker Former NJ AG Matt Platkin 3.16 March 3, 2026 - Week 4 – – State AGs and Guns: Guest Speaker Former NJ AG Matt Platkin
3.16.1. Bio of Former NJ AG Matt Platkin
3.16.2. 3rd Cir upholds key parts of New Jersey gun restrictions 'Majority of the law is intact,' the NJ AG Platkin says.
3.16.3 Guns Generally 3.16.3 Guns Generally
3.16.3.1. What studies reveal about gun ownership in the US | CNN - June 2, 2022
3.16.3.2 Gun death rates in some U.S. states comparable to conflict zones, study finds, Wa Post Oct 31, 2024 3.16.3.2 Gun death rates in some U.S. states comparable to conflict zones, study finds, Wa Post Oct 31, 2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/10/31/us-gun-deaths-violence-global-comparison/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3f7bbda%2F6723acfa09757d7432bbfab6%2F5972e882ade4e21a8486d899%2F32%2F57%2F6723acfa09757d7432bbfab6