Attorney General Jim Hood did an excellent job of laying out his decision not to join other state attorneys general in filing suit against the federal government over recently passed health care reform.
Hood did two key things:
- He acknowledged his personal thoughts on the matter and how he set them aside.
- He detailed how hard he dug to discover whether or not this was a worthwhile endeavor.
Via the Jackson Free Press:
Hood said he had little taste for the suit that Barbour instructed him to join, but did enough research to declare the endeavor a pointless venture.
“I can’t let my bias and where my heart is in trying to help people get in the way of my job as the state’s lawyer, so I had a duty to give a good close look to see if the (law) was constitutional,” Hood said, adding that he had a difficult time locating lawyers willing to scrutinize the likelihood of a successful suit against the federal government.
“I had trouble getting a constitutional lawyer to actually talk to me about it. I mean, they were just scoffing at it,” Hood told an audience of 50. “I went everywhere. Finally I walked down here to (The Mississippi College School of Law) and got (professor) Matt Steffey, sat him down, and made him get down in the ditch with me and go through this, and discover what could be illegal about this Congressional act. But there was nothing that I could find. The only way this could be illegal is if the Supreme Court … were to reverse hundreds of years of case law.”
Hood said he informed Barbour of the fruitlessness of the suit, and suggested the governor refrain from investing heavily in court fees on the case.
We’re blessed to have someone who puts the state’s interests above their own political interests. Unfortunately, Gov. Barbour does not regularly do this.
barbour can pay for the lawsuit with his oily pockets.
Gov. Barbout is an embarrassment to the entire state of Mississippi. He has always looked out for “his” own interests, not what is best for Mississippi residents. Wonder how much of the $15M he got for advertising how great our beaches still are and that the fish are biting…will wind up in his pockets, like the Katrina Rebuilding money. Maybe he will go buy anothe jet plane!
Let’s give a hand to our attorney general who actualy did research this issue for th epeople of Mississippi and resolved that it was not best for Mississippi. At a time when state revenues are down and everything is being cut why use or limited funds to pursue a useless lawsuit. The thing that they are saying is unconstitutional was their idea to begin with so how stupid is that!