When S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson sued the Biden administration for what his office said was at least the 50th time last week – in this case, over health care for children brought to the United States illegally – some Palmetto State political observers said they were reminded of an old joke.
Q: In state politics, what does “A.G.” stand for?
A: Aspiring governor.
“It’s extremely obvious that Alan Wilson is going to run for governor in the next cycle,” said former S.C. Democratic Party Chair Trav Robertson. “And the only way he consolidates his base is by consistently wasting tax dollars by filing frivolous lawsuits.”
What’s more, Robertson says, is that Democrats plan to make those lawsuits a major issue the next time they see Wilson’s name on a general election ballot.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” Robertson said. “He can solidify his base, but these lawsuits are going to come back and be a serious bone of contention with swing voters in South Carolina.”
Wilson spokesman Robert Kittle pushed back against the charge in a Tuesday statement to Statehouse Report.
“This has never been about politics or any ambitions that Attorney General Wilson may or may not have,” Kittle said. “He brings these lawsuits, or joins them, when he feels like any president oversteps his constitutional authority. Attorney General Wilson has always made it clear that he fights to uphold the rule of law and the Constitution.”
But academics who study federalism — that is, the relationship between the federal government and the states — say neither of those explanations captures the whole story. Wilson’s stream of lawsuits aren’t just good politics for an aspiring governor – or good constitutional stewardship by the state’s top lawyer.
The suits are , they say, part of a larger effort by state attorneys general to seize a share of national policy-making power – an effort that started small in the late 1990s, grew slowly through the early 2000s and exploded during the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Litigating ‘the most hot-button issues of the day’
Paul Nolette is the director of the Les Aspin Center for Government at Marquette University and the author of Federalism on Trial: State Attorneys General and National Policymaking in Contemporary America.
“One of the most important developments of the last couple decades with state A.G.s has been their emergence on the national stage,” Nolette told Statehouse Report in a Monday interview. “They’re getting much more involved in national issues, [including] some of the most hot-button topics of the day.”
A look at the federal lawsuits and filings that Wilson has brought since Biden took office, often jointly with other Republican state attorneys general, seems to confirm that “hot-button” characterization. Here’s a sampling of headlines from the attorney general’s website:
- Wilson files lawsuit to stop vaccine mandate for healthcare workers
- Wilson joins multistate action to end CDC’s unlawful mask mandate
- Wilson again fights Biden’s unlawful student debt cancellation
- Wilson joins coalition against Biden administration’s Title IX attack on parental rights and women’s sports
- Wilson sues Biden administration to protect Second Amendment
- Wilson joins 24-state lawsuit to block President Biden’s Head Start mandates
- Wilson files brief challenging the FDA’s defiance of federal and state law in approving abortion drugs
In addition, prior to Biden’s swearing in, Wilson joined a Republican friend of the court brief challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Partisanship or needed check on power?
While there’s no disagreement about the partisan nature of recent state attorney general interventions in federal policy-making, people who’ve studied the issue are split on the implications.
Nolette, who maintains a detailed database of federal cases brought by state attorneys general, sees the clear partisanship running through the numbers as worrisome.
According to the database, Democratic attorneys general brought more than 97% of the cases against the Trump administration, and Republican attorneys general have brought more than 95% of the cases against Biden. Wilson, for instance, filed only two cases under Trump, as opposed to the 50-plus under Biden. Overall, Democrats won 83% of their cases and Republicans had won 76% through 2023.
“It’s gotten very, very partisan and polarized, like the rest of the political system,” Nolette said. “And often with issues that don’t necessarily have anything to do directly with the state, but instead have more to do with a commitment to a broader ideological vision.”
Moreover, he says he’s concerned about the lack of subject-area expertise state attorneys general bring to many of these cases.
“A lot of these areas are very complicated, whether you’re talking about the Clean Air Act or Medicaid fraud or even some parts of civil rights law,” Nolette said. “When it comes to some of these policy-specific areas, if A.G.s are driven largely by ideological or partisan concerns, that’s a problem.”
But Charleston City Councilman Mike Seekings, a former Charleston School of Law professor who practices constitutional law, argues the attorneys general as a group are performing an essential public service, regardless of partisan motivations.
“In the end, attorneys general are there in part to protect states when there are failings at the federal level,” Seekings said. “They’re a check and balance against federal overreach that affects individual states or states collectively.”
Furthermore, he says, we’re living through an era when congressional dysfunction has made that check on presidential authority more important than it might have been 20 years ago, when Congress was still capable of performing its oversight duties.
“At the congressional level, there’s so much gridlock and partisan bickering that they don’t act at all,” Seekings said. “And attorneys general have been in a position to step in and fill that void.”
If the old joke about A.G.s is right, that’s a debate South Carolina voters may be asked to settle when the next governor’s race rolls around in 2026.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
So far all of A.G.s actions are what we pay him for.Everyone of the Governments actions are against states rights. Would you rather have your lives controlled by the Federal Government? I for one would not want that.