WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office kept up a vigorous fight against opioid abuse, sought to beat back the Biden Administration’s overreaching energy policies that could destroy jobs and continued to combat assaults on the Second Amendment.

Arguably, the Attorney General’s biggest accomplishment was reaching the nearly $1 billion mark in settlements with opioid manufacturers, retail pharmacies such as Kroger and Walgreens, and distributors, the highest per capita opioid settlements in the nation. 

• Addressing Opioid Abuse 

In 2023, Attorney General Morrisey did not relent in his committed fight against opioid abuse.

Earlier this year, the Attorney General’s Office and officials in every level of government in West Virginia secured the highest per capita opioid settlements in the nation—this was preceded by the creation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the state and most county and city governments throughout West Virginia to make sure opioid settlement funds are distributed in the fairest, equitable and evidence-based way.

In addition to settlements and establishing the MOU, he continued drug abuse prevention outreach efforts to students, including the 7th annual “Kids Kick Opioids” PSA Contest and high school football “Games of the Week” in the fall. 

• Women’s Sports 

The Attorney General in 2023 fought for the rights of biological women in sports to not have to compete against biological males. This battle sought to ensure that girls and women get their fair share of opportunities in scholastic sports, and Title IX’s regulations make it clear that this could be accomplished in school athletic programs by having ‘separate teams for members of each sex’ where the teams are based on competitive skill.

In October, the Attorney General defended West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act and the Office’s district court victory earlier this year in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

“It’s important to keep safeguarding Title IX and protecting women’s sports so that females have a truly fair playing field,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “The Act protects that fair playing field… We stand by the January decision that this law is constitutional.” 

• Fighting Back Against EPA Overreach 

The Attorney General co-led a coalition of more than 20 states in a lawsuit against the EPA, asking a federal court to vacate the Biden administration’s final rule redefining Waters of the United States (WOTUS) and declare it unlawful. The U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota subsequently issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration's WOTUS rule, and the Supreme Court then ruled that federal jurisdiction over wetlands and streams only applies with those that have a “continuous surface connection” with traditionally navigable waters of the United States.

 The EPA’s proposed new rule on car tailpipes aims to boost electric vehicle sales from 8.4% of total vehicle sales today to 67% by 2032. The Attorney General co-led with Kentucky a coalition of 25 states in a comment letter to the EPA, telling the agency Congress did not give the EPA the power to attempt a top-to-bottom restructuring of the automobile industry. The coalition urged the EPA to instead adopt “feasible standards that maintain our nation’s air quality without risking consumer safety, economic stability and national security,” describing the proposal as “unlawful, unwise and unsustainable.”

 The Attorney General led a coalition of 21 states opposing a proposed rule by the EPA on existing coal-, natural gas- and oil-fired power plants that would regulate those plants under the Clean Air Act by imposing more stringent emissions standards, utterly ignoring last year’s West Virginia v. EPA, which warned that EPA should not use a narrow regulatory provision to force coal-fired power plants into retirement en masse. The proposal would strip states of discretion while using technologies that don’t work in the real world. It sets up the plants to fail to meet the standards dictated in the rule, leaving plants with no other option but to cease operations. 

• Supporting Responsible Energy Policy 

The West Virginia v. EPA decision was the culmination of a years-long, multistate lawsuit against the EPA. The Attorney General’s Office has continued to push for responsible energy policy.

 In October, Attorney General Morrisey led a coalition of 26 states in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regarding its proposed rule that would effectively mandate automakers to shift to electric-dominant vehicles. In this rulemaking and another conducted by the EPA, the agencies proposed rules that would have prematurely forced Americans into electric vehicles without considering the consequences.

 The Attorney General led the fight against the Biden administration’s other efforts to illegally impose onerous regulations pertaining to methane and ozone, other greenhouse regulations and more.  Among other things, he has secured a temporary stay of new proposed ozone regulations before the Fourth Circuit—and is launching a new challenge to recently released methane rules.

 Attorney General Morrisey spearheaded the opposition to woke Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies. He led coalitions in filing multiple comment letters against proposals from the Securities and Exchange Commission to saddle American businesses with crippling ESG-related disclosure requirements. He also fought back against the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and bank regulators when they proposed to do much the same. And he pushed back on bank regulators who sought to impose ESG policies through new enforcement policies. 

• Education Issues 

In November, Attorney General Morrisey issued an opinion that will help protect the educational choice rights of parents and students seeking eligibility for the Hope Scholarship Program. He informed county school boards and public schools that they may not take actions against students who are enrolled full-time in public-school programs while also attending privately funded nonpublic-school programs.

 The Attorney General wrote, “Excluding students from public schools merely because they are pursuing additional educational opportunities elsewhere would contravene both the United States and West Virginia Constitutions and state statutes. The same is true of any attempt by county school boards or schools to bar students from participating in nonpublic school programs while attending public schools. 

• Fighting to Uphold and Protect Second Amendment Rights 

In February, the Attorney General led a coalition of more than 20 states and other parties in filing a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and its director that seeks to enjoin a recently issued final rule governing “Stabilizing Braces,” commonly known as pistol braces.

 Attorney General Morrisey achieved a huge victory for the Second Amendment and privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners in West Virginia and across the country when he persuaded Mastercard and Visa to pause applying a new merchant code to distinguish firearms purchases at gun shops.

 In June, he joined 23 other state attorneys general challenging the constitutionality of California’s Unsafe Handgun Act. That law allows handguns for retail sale only if they come with a chamber load indicator, magazine disconnect mechanism and microstamping capability. No handgun sold in the U.S. has all three, and thus, no handguns have been added to the roster since 2013.

 The Attorney General maintained concealed carry recognition with an overwhelming majority of states across the nation. 

• The State’s First Pro-Life AG 

The Attorney General was unwavering in his continued fight to protect the lives of unborn babies.

 Most notably, he fought to have a lawsuit by an abortion pill manufacturer dismissed. The company argued in their lawsuit that West Virginia’s new abortion law violates several laws—that the state cannot enforce a “ban” of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drug. It wanted the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Huntington Division to find the state’s abortion law unconstitutional. Instead, the court sided with the Attorney General.

 And because of the Office’s strong defense of the state’s abortion law, the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia dropped its lawsuit against the statute. 

• Winning and Advocating for West Virginia and the Nation 

The Attorney General won success for West Virginians in many other areas.

 In January, a West Virginia-led coalition secured a key win in a lawsuit from the U.S. Court of Appeals. The decision stemmed from a Biden administration effort in the American Rescue Plan Act to prevent the well-established authority of states to lower taxes for their citizens. This victory played a critical role in allowing West Virginia to deeply cut taxes, while avoiding the possibility of a claw back of federal funds.

 He co-led a coalition of 22 states with Louisiana in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a broader right to religious accommodations in the workplace. The case involved a Pennsylvania mail carrier’s right not to work on Sunday in violation of his religious beliefs. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in the postal worker’s favor.

 In August, the AG joined a bipartisan coalition in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a three-time veteran the full set of education benefits the Montgomery and Post-9/11 GI Bills allow. The coalition argued that a veteran who has served multiple periods of qualifying service under the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill is entitled to receive a total of 48 months of education benefits—without first exhausting the Montgomery benefit to obtain the more generous post-9/11 benefit.

 In October, Attorney General Morrisey joined 33 attorneys general in suing Meta (formerly known as Facebook) in federal court alleging the company knowingly designed and deployed harmful features on its social media platforms that purposefully addict children and teens. At the same time, Meta falsely assured the public that these features are safe and suitable for young users.

 In that same month, he wrote a letter to the NCAA on behalf of West Virginia University basketball player RaeQuan Battle. Battle used the transfer portal to transfer to WVU from Montana State, and the NCAA ruled he had to sit out a year. The AG argued that the NCAA’s ruling was wrong. The NCAA rejected the appeal of its ruling, but the Attorney General continued to work with Battle’s attorney as well as other attorneys general.

 In December, the Attorney General, along with six other states, filed suit against the NCAA, challenging the association’s Transfer Eligibility Rule. This came on the heels of the NCAA’s decision to deny Battle a transfer waiver so he could play basketball for West Virginia University. In a huge victory for the rule of law, the court issued a temporary restraining order and ultimately a preliminary injunction against the NCAA to allow student athletes, including Battle and Noah Farrakhan, affected by the transfer rule to play through the winter and spring sports seasons.

 An audit in 2023 showed performance continued to improve in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), which the Attorney General’s Office took over from DHHR in 2019. Fraud referrals jumped by nearly 58% to 529 cases between 2020 and 2022 under the Attorney General’s leadership. Total cases opened from referrals went from 138 under DHHR to 339 under the AG's Office, an increase of 145.7%. Total recoveries from criminal and civil cases increased 176.16% from $27.28 million under DHHR to $75.34 million under the AG’s Office. Moreover, the Office implemented cost-effective management of the MFCU’s financial operations, saving West Virginia taxpayers more than a million dollars in state funds by modestly decreasing expenditures and maximizing the MFCU’s use of its federal grant funding.

This past October, the AG participated in a $49.5 million, 49-state settlement with software company Blackbaud for its deficient data security practices and response to a 2020 ransomware event that exposed the personal information of millions of consumers across the U.S.

In actions before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Attorney General: 

• Filed a brief asking the Court to uphold Section 324 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 to restart the stalled construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. In July, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the $6.6 billion project allowing work on it to resume.
• Joined a 17-state coalition that asked the Supreme Court to reject President Biden’s request to lift an appellate court’s stay of his student-loan forgiveness program. The Supreme Court agreed, ruling that federal law does not authorize the Secretary of Education to issue mass cancellation of student loans.
• Joined a 19-state coalition led by Oklahoma that argued federal law prohibits universities from discriminating against Asian-American applicants in their admissions processes, and that discrimination based on race in higher education admissions at public colleges is unlawful. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that race-based college admissions are unconstitutional, a decision that effectively ends affirmative action in college admissions.
• Partnered with a 20-state coalition that filed an amicus brief supporting the position of 303 Creative, a Colorado graphic art and website design business. The owner wanted to expand her business into wedding websites, but her religious beliefs prohibit her from promoting same-sex weddings. Colorado law tried to compel her to do so, but the Supreme Court said the First Amendment rights of business owners are paramount.
• Joined a bipartisan 54-state and territory coalition urging Congress to study how artificial intelligence (AI) can and is being used to exploit children through child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and to propose legislation to protect children from those abuses.
• Signed on to an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case involving Major League Baseball’s century-old antitrust exemption—which allowed MLB to cut 40 minor league ball clubs during a 2020 minor league contraction. 

In August, he joined a 25-state coalition in a letter to Congress supporting the passage of federal legislation that would preserve students’ access to training that teaches youth best practices, so they do not misuse firearms or other weapons. The Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to clarify that the prohibition on the use of federal education funds for certain weapons does not apply to the use of such weapons for training in archery, hunting, or other shooting sports.

Other accomplishments include the following: 

• Joined West Virginia to a nationwide, bipartisan task force that will take legal steps to stop unlawful robocalls.
• Sued a telecom company for allegedly initiating and facilitating billions of illegal robocalls to millions of people and violating several federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws. The company allegedly transmitted more than 7.5 billion calls to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.
• Sued a disc jockey for violation of the Consumer Credit & Protection Act. Because of this suit, a Hancock County Circuit Court judge awarded $270,000 in civil penalties against the defendant. This person operated a disc jockey and event planning company in West Virginia, then in Ohio, from April 2020 through June 2021. During that time, she entered into 135 contracts to provide disc jockey services for weddings in West Virginia and other states but failed to perform or issue refunds. Her conduct resulted in guilty pleas in West Virginia and Ohio, where she promised to repay 54 victims of her business practices.
• Defended a law that is aiding the development of the Hill Top Hotel project in Harpers Ferry, which ultimately persuaded a judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the town of Harpers Ferry and the project.
• Continued consumer outreach, including scam awareness presentations to senior centers and a weekly Consumer Protection Minute that appeared on television and radio stations statewide.
• Filed several suits against unethical businesses, including one against an unlicensed contractor that resulted in a court requiring him to pay restitution of $100,000 to his defrauded victims in Kanawha and Putnam counties.
• Filed suit against a Kanawha County monument/memorial seller for allegedly taking money from consumers and not delivering what they paid for. The state began investigating the seller’s business practices in 2022 after receiving numerous complaints that the business took consumers’ money but did not deliver or install the cemetery monuments.
• Led a coalition of 27 states in a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule—or at least clarify—the doctrine known as Chevron deference—that gives deference to a federal agency’s interpretation of a statute.
• Just before Christmas, the Attorney General scored another win when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Charleston Division dismissed a suit seeking to disqualify President Donald Trump from running in the upcoming West Virginia Presidential Primary and General Elections.
• The Attorney General also co-led a multistate coalition in filing a brief asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to keep Trump on the ballot—on Dec. 27, the Michigan Supreme Court decision not to hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling that kept former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary election ballot.
• Joined a coalition of 19 states asking the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a petition for certiorari before judgment from special counsel Jack Smith—to determine whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted on charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election results—the Supreme Court rejected a request from Smith to decide, without waiting for a federal appeals court to weigh in, whether Trump can be tried on criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

“This past year was unprecedented with best in the nation per capita opioid settlements with manufacturers and pharmacies and navigating continued federal overreach by the Biden administration,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “While it’s great to reflect on our progress, we must also continue to press onward and keep fighting for the people of West Virginia.”

“There’s a lot more that needs to be done—we have laid a solid foundation upon which we can build another record of success in 2024.”

Original source can be found here.