The Nation's Worst State Attorneys General

 Here are the six worst state attorneys general in the nation:

1. Jerry Brown, California

2. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut

3. Drew Edmondson, Oklahoma

4. Patrick Lynch, Rhode Island

5. Darrell McGraw, West Virginia

6. William Sorrell, Vermont

California’s Jerry Brown tops the list, for repeatedly refusing to defend state laws he disliked.  One example was a state constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage (but not civil unions) passed by voters as Proposition 8.  This constitutional provision was upheld by the state Supreme Court, which rejected Brown's argument that it violated the state constitution.  I personally opposed Prop. 8, but it’s clear, by definition, that a state constitutional provision cannot violate the very constitution of which it is a part; and it’s the most basic duty of an attorney general to defend state laws, whether or not he likes them.  Another example was Prop. 209, a state constitutional amendment banning racial set-asides and racial preferences.  That constitutional provision was upheld by a federal appeals court in 1997, but a dozen years later, Brown refused to defend it, claiming its ban on discrimination violated the Constitution's equal protection clause.

Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal scored 2nd worst on the list.  In CEI’s previous ratings, released in 2007, Blumenthal occupied the #1 worst spot.  Blumenthal hasn't gotten any better since then, but the competition for worst AG has gotten fiercer.

Blumenthal, who has used the power of his office to enrich his cronies, continues to earn low grades for his ringleader role in the Tobacco Settlement racket of 1998, which he used to steer millions of dollars to his cronies, as well as for his support of racial quotas and speech restrictions, his attack on private property rights, and various other egregious acts.

 The study uses several criteria for determining who made the list of shame: ethical breaches and selective applications of the law; fabricating law, usurping legislative powers; and predatory practices (such as seeking to regulate out-of-state businesses that broke no state law).