Politicking for justice
Who saw this curve ball coming?
The Tennessee Supreme Court — slammed by Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and other conservative opponents in the August election campaigns — retains its three Democrat justices and its Democratic court majority, but then the justices dump the Democratic attorney general.
On Monday, Supreme Court justices — who appoint the state’s attorney general — named Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s legal counsel, Herbert Slatery, as Tennessee’s next attorney general. In making the decision, the justices rejected Democratic Attorney General Bob Cooper’s bid for a second eight-year appointment.
Slatery, 62, becomes Tennessee’s first Republican attorney general since at least post-Civil War Reconstruction days.
The justices declined to take reporters’ questions at the conclusion of their announcement.