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February 22, 2024

KJ Boyle

Blog Post Climate and EnvironmentIndependent AgenciesState Attorneys General

Trump Judge And Louisiana AG Fight To Maintain Environmental Racism

In 2022, Biden’s EPA opened an investigation into Louisiana’s Departments of Health (LDH) and Environmental Quality (LDQ) for failing to sufficiently protect residents of “Cancer Alley”—a strip of predominantly poor, Black communities suffering the dire effects of pollutants spewed from nearby petrochemical plants. To their credit, LDH and LDQ cooperated with the investigation and worked to craft more stringent standards and oversight protocols. Former Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, however, had other ideas. His office filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s (clear) authority to pursue its investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which allows the government to terminate federal funding for an agency found to have engaged in discrimination. Liz Murrill, Landry’s successor, is picking up the torch to carry on his malevolent agenda. 

February 20, 2024

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Blog Post Ethics in GovernmentState Attorneys General

RAGA Leadership, A Fraught History: Jeff Landry

Jeff Landry’s time spent helming Louisiana’s Attorney General office was defined by a litany of ethical failings. Over the course of 15 years spent running for public office, Landry funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign dollars back into the coffers of his own staffing company – whose staff lists are not public – in an apparent circumvention of standard public transparency practices. During his time at the AG, Landry was also accused of giving preferential treatment to a pedophile with political connections, which ultimately led a former prosecutor to sue the Attorney General.

February 20, 2024

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Blog Post Ethics in GovernmentState Attorneys General

RAGA Leadership, A Fraught History: Steve Marshall

Alabama’s Attorney General, Steve Marshall, has spent his time in office funneling tens of millions of dollars to outside counsel in order to defend the state’s litany of laws prohibiting gender affirming care and Alabama’s notoriously violent prisons. Alabama, under Marshall’s stewardship, earmarked no less than $14.9 million to a single attorney to represent the state against DOJ prison suits over the next two years, even though that same attorney has already received $17.8 million from state coffers over the past five. That single attorney, Bill Lunsford, also donated $1000 to Marshall’s campaign in 2018. 

February 19, 2024

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Blog Post Ethics in GovernmentState Attorneys General

RAGA Leadership, A Fraught History: Chris Carr

Chris Carr, while unique amongst Republicans for his notable lack of participation in Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, is also not immune to responsibility for and complicity in it. Carr did resign from his Chairmanship of RAGA over the group’s role in fomenting the insurrection, but he took three months following the events of January 6 to do so. Additionally, critics argued that RAGA “became even more anti-democratic” under Carr’s leadership and that his resignation represented little more than a convenient political stunt.