Your Questions About What State Attorneys General Do, Answered

Ask the average voter to name the most powerful official in the state, and you will hear "the governor" nine times out of ten. Ask who sues the drug companies, takes on the price-fixers, defends the state's laws in court and decides whether to join a lawsuit against the federal government, and you will get a blank look and a request to repeat the question. The attorney general is one of the most consequential and least understood officials in American government, and in most states you elect that person yourself.

Here are the questions people really ask, in the order they usually come up, with answers that stay close to what the law says. Where the rules differ from state to state, I'll tell you, and I'll point you to the place to check. This is a Q&A, so the steps are plain; the opinions are saved for the end.

The basics

What does a state attorney general actually do?

The attorney general is the state's chief lawyer. The office does four big jobs. It represents the state and its agencies in court. It enforces consumer-protection and antitrust laws on behalf of the public. It defends state laws when they are challenged. And in most states it issues formal legal opinions to state officials who ask what a statute means.

The details vary. In one state the office may also run criminal prosecutions, in another it may supervise charities, in a third it may oversee elections law. But the core is the same: when the state is a party to a lawsuit, the attorney general is usually its lawyer. Many offices have a solicitor general, a senior lawyer who specializes in appeals and argues the state's biggest cases before the supreme court. A formal opinion from the attorney general is not a court ruling and does not bind a judge, but state and local officials generally follow it, and a judge will often read it with respect. Think of it as the state's lawyer telling the state what the law says before anyone goes to court, which is a bargain compared with finding out afterward.

Who does the attorney general represent?

This one trips people up. The attorney general represents the state, meaning the government as an institution, and in many states also the public interest. The attorney general is not your personal lawyer. If you have a dispute with your landlord or your employer, the office cannot take your case the way a private attorney would. It can, however, take action when many people are harmed in the same way, or when the law gives the state the power to sue.

That distinction matters when a governor and an attorney general disagree. The state agencies are the attorney general's clients, but the attorney general is also an independent elected official with duties to the law. In most states the two offices are separately elected, so a disagreement is not a firing offense. It is a feature of divided executive power.

Do voters elect the attorney general?

In most states, yes. The attorney general is chosen in a statewide election, usually for a four-year term. A handful of states do it differently. In Tennessee the state supreme court appoints the attorney general. In Maine the legislature chooses. In a few other states, such as New Jersey, the governor appoints. Check your state's constitution, which is on your legislature's website, for the rule where you live.

Why it matters: an elected attorney general answers to voters, not to the governor, which is why you can have a governor of one party and an attorney general of the other. It is also why the office is a springboard. Many governors and senators started there.

Consumers and competition

How does the office enforce consumer-protection law?

Every state has a law against unfair or deceptive business practices. The attorney general is usually the main enforcer. If a company runs a scam, hides fees, makes false claims in advertising or cheats a lot of customers in the same way, the attorney general can investigate, demand records and sue.

The remedies often include repayment to customers, civil penalties and a court order to stop the practice. Most cases end in a settlement, not a trial.

The conservative view of this power is a mix. On one hand, fraud is theft, and a state that polices fraud protects honest businesses and ordinary customers. On the other hand, a vague "deceptive practices" statute can become a club to use against firms the office dislikes. The test is whether the office goes after actual fraud or after disfavoured industries. That's a good question to put to any candidate for the job.

What about antitrust?

States have their own antitrust laws, modelled on the federal Sherman Act of 1890. The attorney general can sue to break up price-fixing and illegal mergers. Since the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, state attorneys general have also had authority to sue in federal court, on behalf of residents, for damages caused by violations of federal antitrust law. This is called parens patriae authority, which is Latin for "parent of the country."

In practice, states often join the Justice Department's cases or bring their own, sometimes working together in a group.

Defending the state's laws

How does the attorney general defend state laws?

When someone challenges a state law in court, saying it violates the state or federal constitution, the attorney general normally defends it. A good example is Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which reached the Supreme Court in 2022. Mississippi's attorney general defended the state's law limiting abortions after fifteen weeks all the way to the nation's highest court, and the case overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The attorney general's job in these cases is to make the best legal argument for the law, whether or not the officeholder voted for it or likes it. That is the professional norm, and it matters: an attorney general who defended only the laws he liked would turn the office into a veto.

What if the attorney general refuses to defend a law?

It happens, and the consequences are real. In the California Proposition 8 case, the governor and the attorney general both declined to defend the voter-approved marriage amendment in federal court. The sponsors of the initiative stepped in to defend it, and in 2013, in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Supreme Court held that they lacked standing to appeal. In practical terms, the ruling meant that when state officials decline to defend a law, it may not get a defence on appeal.

The lesson is not about the merits of the marriage question. It is about structure. Whether you like a given law or not, the principle that an elected attorney general must defend the laws on the books is a safeguard for the legislature and the voters. Many states have since adjusted their statutes to give the legislature or the sponsors a way to defend a law the attorney general will not. If you care about this, find out what your state's rule is.

Suing together and sorting out the jobs

Why do attorneys general sue together in multistate lawsuits?

Because the numbers add up. A state alone has limited resources and limited reach. A group of states can pool lawyers, share costs and present a united front.

Two examples. In 1998, attorneys general from 46 states, along with several territories and the District of Columbia, signed the Master Settlement Agreement with the major tobacco companies; four other states, Mississippi, Texas, Florida and Minnesota, settled separately. The payments were estimated at well over $200 billion across the first 25 years. And in 2010, within hours of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, a group of state attorneys general, led at first by Florida, filed suit in federal court against the law. By the time the case reached the Supreme Court as NFIB v. Sebelius in 2012, 26 states were challenging the individual mandate and the Medicaid expansion. The Court upheld the mandate as a tax but held that the Medicaid expansion, as written, was unconstitutionally coercive. The details of that ruling are in NFIB v. Sebelius Lost the Mandate Fight but Won a Limit on Federal Strings.

Attorneys general from the party out of power in Washington routinely challenge the administration in court, and attorneys general from the other party do the same in turn. Both parties do it, and both have formed associations for the purpose: the Republican Attorneys General Association and, on the other side, the Democratic Attorneys General Association. A voter should expect it and judge each lawsuit by its legal merit.

How is an attorney general different from a district attorney?

A district attorney, in states that use the term, is a local prosecutor, elected by a county or a district. The district attorney brings most criminal charges for crimes that happen in that jurisdiction: robbery, assault, drug cases, murder. The attorney general is a statewide officer whose work is mostly civil, representing the state, though many offices also handle criminal appeals, public corruption and cases that cross county lines.

There are exceptions. In a few states, such as Delaware and Rhode Island, the attorney general's office prosecutes nearly all felony cases. In many others the attorney general can step in when a local prosecutor has a conflict or asks for help, and in some states the attorney general can take over a case under specific conditions. If you want to know who prosecutes a crime in your county, call the clerk of court or look at the county's website.

Can the attorney general sue a city or a county?

In many states, yes, especially when a local government is breaking a state law or enforcing a rule that conflicts with one. Whether the state can override a city's decision depends on the legal relationship between the two, a subject covered at length in Why Your City Can't Do That, Dillon's Rule and Home Rule Explained. If you hear that "the state is suing the city," the usual issue is preemption, meaning that a state law takes priority over a local ordinance.

Getting help and why it matters

How do I file a complaint?

Start with your state attorney general's website, which will have a consumer complaint form. The National Association of Attorneys General keeps a directory of the offices. The process usually runs like this.

1. Gather the paper. Receipts, contracts, emails, advertisements, screenshots and dates. Put them in order.
2. Write a short summary. Say what happened, when, who was involved and what you want. A page is enough.
3. File online or by mail. Most offices accept both.
4. Expect mediation first. Many offices will send your complaint to the business and ask for a response. This resolves a lot of cases.
5. Know the limits. The office usually cannot represent you personally or guarantee a refund. If you need a lawyer, hire one. The complaint still helps, because a pattern of complaints is what triggers an investigation.

For a crime, call your local police or sheriff, not the attorney general.

Why does this office matter so much to conservatives?

Because it is where the Tenth Amendment meets a courtroom. When Washington oversteps, the attorney general is often the first to file. When a state passes a law to protect parents, property or religious liberty, the attorney general defends it. And when a company defrauds seniors or fixes prices, the attorney general is the public's lawyer. A candidate for the office is a candidate for the job of enforcing the laws without fear or favour, and that is why it deserves more attention than it gets on a down-ballot line.

For the bigger picture, What a Governor Can Actually Do and What Only the Legislature Can shows how the governor's powers compare, and How a Bill Becomes State Law, From Idea to the Governor's Desk explains the lawmaking that the attorney general later defends. To test whether a federal law fits the Constitution, as these cases often ask, try A Five-Question Constitutional Test You Can Run on Any Federal Law, and for the pushback against federal strings on state programs, see The Drinking Age Story Shows How Washington Buys Control of the States.

The bottom line

• The attorney general is the state's chief lawyer. The office enforces consumer and antitrust laws, defends state laws, represents state agencies and, in many states, issues formal legal opinions.
• Most voters elect the attorney general directly, so the office is accountable to you. Read the candidates' records on fraud cases, on defending laws and on multistate suits.
• The office will not be your personal lawyer, but a well-documented complaint helps. Gather the paperwork, write a one-page summary and file on your state's website.
• Multistate lawsuits, from the 1998 tobacco settlement to the challenge in NFIB v. Sebelius, show how a group of attorneys general can reshape national policy.
• Vote in the attorney general race every time. It sits far down the ballot and carries enormous weight.