If there’s one thing some House of Delegates Democrats can’t stand it’s a feisty Republican.
This week, the House Judiciary Committee passed, on a party-line vote, a bill (HB 2788) that attempts to rein in the authority of Republican state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
The bill, among other things, establishes new ethics rules for the Attorney General, requires the AG to turn over to the state’s General Fund any money won through litigation, and prohibits him from getting involved in lawsuits unless the Governor, House Speaker and Senate President approve.
As always with the Legislature, it’s important to know the motivation. House Democrats and Morrisey got off to a bad start last year when some members objected to Morrisey’s hiring of Elbert Lin as AG’s solicitor general at $132,000 several months before Lin was licensed to practice law in the state.
In fairness to House Democrats, Morrisey is always willing to poke a sharp stick in the eye of his political adversaries. He actually seems to enjoy conflict when compromise or even deference might reach the same end.
So the disputes have carried over into this session with the House Democrats’ latest effort to send Morrisey a message about who’s in charge.
When Morrisey’s predecessor, Democrat Darrell McGraw, had his authority challenged, he took the issue to the state Supreme Court. In McGraw v. Burton in 2002, the high court found in favor of McGraw, firmly establishing his independence as a Constitutional officer.
Wrote the court, “No statue, policy, rule or practice may constitutionally operate, alone or cumulatively, to limit, reduce, transfer, or reassign the duties and powers of the Office of the Attorney General in such a fashion as to prevent that office from performing its inherent constitutional functions.”
The court repeatedly stated in its opinion that the Attorney General is the state’s chief legal officer and attempts by the Legislature to limit his duties “is wholly at odds with the historical and well-settled understanding of the constitutional role of the Attorney General.”
So, the House Democrats are wasting time and energy, especially as the end of the session approaches and the water protection bill still needs to be passed. This is a pointless power game. Even if the bill passed, it would likely be declared unconstitutional if challenged.
As for Morrisey, he could work on building a few bridges with the opposition party and remember Thomas Jefferson’s counsel from his first inaugural address: “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.”