William Pryor: “I have served with some of these attorneys general, and I can say they come from different ideological points of view…”

“I have served with some of these attorneys general, and I can say they come from different ideological points of view and different ways of practicing law. As a whole, they are not taking a position on the bill, but as you can see by this letter, the vast majority of State AGs agree on one point: As the chief legal officers for their respective States, there must be clarification in the bill to make sure they can continue to represent the citizens of their States and carry out their duties as elected officials. As we all know, attorneys general frequently investigate and bring actions against defendants who have caused harm to their citizens. These cases are usually brought pursuant to the attorneys general parens patriae authority under their respective consumer protection and antitrust statutes. This is an important point. Not all States have parens patriae authority. In fact, the State of Arkansas, when I was attorney general, had very limited parens patriae. In fact, one could argue none at all. We always had to pursue our actions under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which is a State statute, and we had specific authority in that statute.”