State AG Pulse

The 2023 AG elections showed Republican wins across the board, contrasting with Democratic success across the country on ballot initiatives in Ohio, judicial races in Pennsylvania, legislative races in Virginia and the Kentucky governor's race. In Episode 9, Stephen Cobb and Emily Yu parse the 2023 elections and consider the implications for 2024, when 10 states will vote for AG.

A data breach that exposed sensitive data collected in genetic testing that could potentially be used to target vulnerable populations has attracted the attention of Connecticut AG William Tong. In Episode 9, Chris Allen and Hannah Cornett discuss the implications of the breach and consider ways businesses that collect highly sensitive information can anticipate and prepare for data security incidents.

In 2020, action by Major League Baseball left 40 minor league teams out in the cold and their communities economically impacted. The minor leagues brought an antitrust suit against the MLB. Now a bipartisan coalition of state AGs has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the MLB’s historic exemption from such an antitrust claim. In Episode 8, Stephen Cobb and Keturah Taylor discuss this action and whether it portends more action and involvement from state AGs at the Supreme Court level.

When more than $2 billion was withdrawn from consumer bank accounts without authorization, the AGs took notice. The root cause? A payment processor’s use of real customer data instead of dummy data to test one of its payment products and faulty internal data security controls. In Episode 7, Meghan Stoppel and Emily Yu talk about why AGs are particularly concerned about this kind of consumer harm, and what companies can do to prevent this kind of scrutiny.

In addition to serving as consumer guardians, state AGs take their role as custodians of the environment very seriously, as exemplified by a recent action by DC AG Schwalb against electric utility Pepco. In Episode 5, Meghan Schwalb Stoppel and Keturah Taylor consider the ways in which AGs hold businesses accountable for their environmental impact.

In Episode 4, Chris Allen and Emily Yu look at the history of the SAFER Banking Act and consider whether the latest legislative proposal will realize AGs’ bipartisan ambitions for a regulatory and enforcement regime for cannabis that generates additional state revenues, deters bad actors, and provides businesses with predictability and legal certainty.

In Episode 3, Meghan Stoppel and Hannah Cornett recommend that all businesses pay attention to the CFPB’s recently issued guidelines on the use of AI tools in credit writing, since other regulators are likely to follow suit and the impacts go beyond the credit industry.

This episode of State AG Pulse looks at an investigation by Minnesota AG Keith Ellison into student loan providers alleged to have violated consumer protection and registration laws in his state, and the likelihood that it will sweep in other regulators and ripple throughout the debt servicing industry.

Launching off season 3 of State AG Pulse, Stephen Cobb and Emily Yu go behind the headlines on a multi-district litigation related to PFAS or “forever chemicals” playing out in district court. Despite a proposed settlement in the range of $10 - $12 billion, AGs are concerned about whether the amount will be sufficient to cover the needed remediation, and whether the manufacturers will have the financial means to make payments over the full duration of the settlement period.

To wrap up season 2 of AG Pulse, General Rokita of Indiana talks with Jerry Kilgore and Chris Allen about state sovereignty and the role of the states as laboratories of democracy. General Rokita bemoans the uptick in federal interventionism and the threat it presents to state authority as enshrined in the Constitution, illustrating his point of view by drawing on developments in privacy law in general, and the recent location-tracking suit against Google in particular.