A bill that would rein in the
authority of state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is moving in the House of
Delegates with just more than two weeks left in the 2014 Regular Legislative
Session.
The Attorney General Ethics and
Accountability Act, HB 4490, was scheduled to be taken up on the House floor on
second reading, meaning possible amendments, on Thursday and, if approved,
could advance out of the House before the end of the week.
As proposed, that bill would
establish new ethics rules for the attorney general, require the attorney
general to turn over any money won through litigation to the state’s general
revenue fund, and prohibit the attorney general from getting involved in
lawsuits unless the governor, house speaker and senate president approve.
House Speaker Tim Miley
(D-Harrison, 48) said the bill is about the operations of the Office of
Attorney General in the long term.
Morrisey said he does not
understand why the House is targeting his office only and sent a letter to
Miley on Tuesday raising questions about the constitutionality of the bill
members of the House Judiciary Committee approved, earlier this week, with a
vote along party lines.
In 2002, the state Supreme Court
ruled in favor of Morrisey’s predecessor, Darrell McGraw, a Democrat, when
his authority challenged.
The Supreme Court said the
following: “No statute, policy, rule or practice may constitutionally operate,
alone or cumulatively, to limit, reduce, transfer, or reassign the duties and
powers of the Office of Attorney General in such a fashion as to prevent that
office from performing its inherent constitutional functions.”
The 2014 Regular Legislative Session ends on Saturday, March 8.
