Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Hood joins the Exxon mob (Updated)

Politico reported yesterday that Mississippi Attorney Generalissimo Jim Hood is joining several attorneys general who are suing Exxon: 

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood today sided with his colleagues from Massachusetts, New York and other blue states in an ongoing legal battle over whether ExxonMobil can be forced to fork over documents related its climate change research and advocacy.

Hood today joined AGs from 11 other states, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., on an amicus brief filed in a Texas federal court seeking to bolster Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's investigation, which she defended in a Monday motion to the same court. Exxon is trying to quash Healey's demand for company's communications with industry and conservative groups in the Texas federal court, as well as in Massachusetts state court.

Though he is a Democrat, Hood is a somewhat surprising ally for the blue-state AGs. Last year, he aligned with Texas GOP counterpart Ken Paxton - who is leading red-state AGs in defense of Exxon - on a lawsuit challenging EPA's Clean Water Act rule last year.

The attorneys general argue in today's brief that legal precedent bars Exxon "from bringing a federal lawsuit to stymie an Attorney General's investigation," given that state courts are already available for such a challenge. The AGs say their goal is to protect their authority to conduct investigations and "in safeguarding the roles of their state courts in this nation's system of dual sovereignty."

Hood engaged in a high-profile battle of his own over corporate compliance with AG subpoenas earlier this year, battling Google in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals over whether the company could challenge Hood's subpoena before he fully pursued a case against it. Hood ultimately withdrew the subpoena at issue.
Update: Attorney General Jim Hood issued the following statement:

While our office is not directly involved in the underlying substantive investigation, Mississippi joined the brief because it supports the authority of attorneys general to investigate wrongdoing and to use subpoenas in furtherance of such investigations without undue federal court involvement.  This is a position we have consistently taken in support of other attorneys general and also in our own investigations and cases, most recently in the Google litigation.  Forty attorneys general were united in successfully having a similar law suit by Google against Mississippi thrown out of court.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cliff notes for some of us less informed?

Anonymous said...

Cliffs Notes for @8:32 - "I'm Jim Hood, and I'm running for Governor. I approve this message."

Anonymous said...

His law buddies need a few extra hundred million. Hood will need the money form from them to finance his run for Governor. Remember, he ducked his responsibility to prosecute the Scruggs crowd because they were friends. I am sure Dickie boy will send another big check.

Anonymous said...

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why Mississippians - of both parties - keep electing this guy!

Anonymous said...

hmmm.............

Mullet Watch said...

His detractors despise him, his employees tolerate him, his barber loves him.

Anonymous said...

09:26 That would be the same disbarred convicted felon Mr. Scruggs who is invited to speak to the Madison County Bar Association on August 25th. Gee, will they award an hour of ethics CLE for the attendees?

Anonymous said...

KF - I still think you are missing out by not covering the Felix Vail story. It is all the rage, and Jerry is right on top of it. He's even gone techno and is tweeting about the trial. OMG this is so awesome.

Anonymous said...

12:54 p.m. you are clearly a disgruntled former employee of the Clarion Ledger. Please give it a rest. No one gives a damn.

Anonymous said...

1:36 - your sarcasm detector needs new batteries.

Anonymous said...

2:05 - and the prize goes to you!! that was freaking funny

Anonymous said...

Jerry is the reason I ended a 40 year subscription (1970_2010) to the CL.

Anonymous said...

KF - how much would it cost to get you to block 12:54's incessent posting about Felix Vail. I don't care about sarcasm detectors or not - this constant crap thrown into every issue is getting old.

Understand - we don't have to read those things that get thrown on here that we don't give a damn about. But this idiot thinks that Vail should be included in every item - hard to skip over his crap.

i don't know for sure, but I bet with a little effort we could raise a reasonable fee for you to block his crap.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Vail got his hands on Butler's cell phone.

Go Dickie.. said...

What's wrong with Dickie speaking to a group of lawyers? The Temperance Union and AA groups regularly trot drunks out on stage to showcase the evils of wayward behavior. Beats the hell out of flip charts and metrics boards.

Anonymous said...

It depends - if Dickie is going before them to show how to succeed without really trying, I'd say there is something wrong. Those drunks at AA don't go in to tout the benefits of continued imbibing.

Anonymous said...

6:15 - The point made is that Dickie's showing up will serve as a reminder to the group of how a lawyer should not conduct himself.....just like the sot at the AA meeting, sitting on a stool drooling, will serve as a similar reminder. Please pay attention and learn to connect dots.


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