Governor Lee’s Legal Advisor Chosen To Be Tennessee’s Next Attorney General
Image Credit: The Federalist Society & Thomas R Machnitzki / CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
The Tennessee Supreme Court has chosen Jonathan Thomas Skrmetti to be the Volunteer State’s next Attorney General.
The Supreme Court has the responsibility of appointing the State’s chief legal officer and chose Skrmetti from a pool of six applicants this week.
Skrmetti, age 45, was born in New London, CT and has lived in Tennessee for 11 years, currently residing in Williamson County.
He received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2004 and a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford in 2001 and a B.A. in Philosophy from George Washington University in 1999.
He served as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice from 2005-2010.
Following that, he was an assistant U.S. Attorney in Memphis from 2011-2014.
Then, he became Tennessee’s Chief Deputy Attorney General, serving in that role from 2018-2021.
Skrmetti has been Governor Lee’s Chief Legal Counsel since 2021.
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The Tennessee Supreme Court questioned Skrmetti for 42 minutes.
During his interview, he stated that Tennessee is on par with other states in the amount of opinions issued by the Attorney General, but said that more opinions would be useful for clarity between other branches of the state government. Tennessee’s current Attorney General has only issued ten opinions during his time in the position, most at the request of legislators.
Of note, Skrmetti stated that the Attorney General’s office should be more involved in the oversight of social media and Big Tech companies, with the protection of consumers in mind.
He said that technology moves at a rapid pace and that the law is slow to keep up.
Skrmetti’s eight-year term as Tennessee’s new Attorney General will begin on September 1st of this year.
The application and interview process began as a result of Tennessee’s current Attorney General, Herbert Slatery III, announcing that he would not be seeking an additional term. Slatery was the first Republican to occupy Tennessee’s Attorney General and Reporter position since Reconstruction.
The Tennessee Attorney General is a non-partisan position, however, Skrmetti made his own political ties to the Republican Party known in his application and interviews, and noted that he once served as the president of the Memphis lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society.
In addition, 4 out of the five Supreme Court Justices, all of who were appointed by Republicans, approved his selection.
The only Justice to dissent was Justice Sharon Lee, who was appointed by former Democratic Governor, Phil Bredesen. Her dissent was given without explanation.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
Explain to me how a Harvard person who worked for the government and is more then likely a DEMOCRAT get to be attorney General for TN??? Seems there are some favors be returned here.
Like I had said earlier in another post we are loosing TN fast here. People really better start paying attention.