Jim Hood has a tough job. In recent years, it’s even tougher than it ought to be.
As attorney general for the state of Mississippi — a post he has held since 2004 — Hood is the state’s lawyer.
Hood said during a Tuesday visit to the Columbus Rotary Club, much of the work of his office, which includes a staff of eight attorneys, attracts little attention — things like being a watchdog over efforts to con people out of their hard earned money through data breaches and cyber attacks or clarifying state laws and issuing opinions that may affect only a small group of people.
Unfortunately, Hood says, the matters that do thrust the AG’s office into the public eye are the result of needless — and costly — political pandering as legislators and the governor seek to appeal to their bases or distract people from the bigger issues that confront our state, of which there are many.
The numbers provide powerful support for his criticisms.
In recent years, the Legislature has passed laws that might be laughed off as frivolous and silly were it not for the fact they often wind up costing the state millions in legal fees as one after another is shot down by the federal courts.
It is frustrating for Hood. He cites the Supremacy Clause found in the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law is the law of the land and state’s cannot pass laws that defy existing federal law. It is, Hood says, a part of the Constitution not difficult to understand but is apparently easy for legislators to ignore.
He is frustrated that lawmakers do not seek legal counsel to determine if a bill can withstand constitutional scrutiny before proposing legislation.
Hood says many of those laws are crafted simply to score points with their political bases. A politician who establishes himself as a champion of things like “religious liberty” or “Second Amendment rights” gains political points, but it is the state’s taxpayers who pay the freight when those frivolous and unconstitutional laws are challenged in the courts.
In many cases, these kinds of laws are, at best failures in good judgment and wise stewardship of taxpayer dollars; at worst, they represent reckless disregard for taxpayers and the state’s national image.
Sadly, there appears to be no correlation between costly misjudgments and negative consequences for those who make them. In fact, it often appears these blunders are rewarded. A lawmaker whose ill-conceived law costs the state millions of dollars in legal fees too often is considered to have fought the good fight against an onerous federal government.
Meanwhile, our state hemorrhages tax dollars at a time when its economy seems to be faltering.
Until voters inform themselves and hold lawmakers accountable for their costly grand-standing, this stream of irresponsible legislation appears likely to continue.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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