State high court should avoid partisan pick for attorney general | Victor Ashe

Herb Slatery’s retirement as state attorney general on Aug. 31 should trigger serious discussion by the five Supreme Court justices on how they will choose the next AG and what qualities they want in this person.

This discussion should include state policymakers, as well. It is important and has policy ramifications.

How open will the selection process be? Will women and/or African Americans be encouraged to apply? None have ever held the AG office in Tennessee despite women now making up almost half of all current law school graduates.

Does the court want another active partisan advocate for the GOP? Or does the court prefer a less partisan approach in the work of the AG, which affects all Tennesseans?

Slatery was in private law practice in Knoxville for 30 years before Gov. Bill Haslam took him to Nashville as legal counsel in his first term. Slatery is a respected attorney but was not an active political player in Knoxville. He also stayed under the radar screen working for Haslam.

When the state Supreme Court selected him upon Haslam's recommendation as AG eight years ago, he made up for lost time. He became visibly active and litigious. He was an advocate for many partisan causes.

Nashville Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Democrat, said Slatery's actions "became more overtly political and more overtly partisan. He wasn't just a Republican who was appointed attorney general but rather a Republican attorney general.

"The next attorney general will face a big choice whether to go further down the partisan path or veer toward the more institutional role as chief lawyer whose client is every Tennessee citizen."

Proponents of the current system have consistently argued that court appointment of the AG assures the best qualified person and ensures the office is not partisan. Slatery's tenure and consistent advocacy of political measures contradicts that view.

The court-appointed AG is not answerable to anyone once the person takes office for an eight-year term. Whoever this court names will work with Gov. Bill Lee during his probable second four-year term and a yet to be determined new governor who follows Lee, who will be term limited, in 2027. The new AG's term will expire Sept. 1, 2030.

The current Supreme Court consists of three women and two men.

Republican County Commission at-large nominee Kim Frazier opposes County Mayor Glenn Jacobs' plan to amend the Knox County zoning ordinance to make it harder to appeal development issues to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

This is not a surprise, but there are those who feel the effort was started now to ensure repeal of the current zoning appeal process by the time Frazier would take office Sept.  1. Frazier faces Democratic opponent Vivian Shipe in the August general election.

Those commissioners who are closer to developers in their votes worry about Frazier's compelling ways with voters. Her convincing victory over Devin Driscoll worries some commissioners.

Adrian Jay, wife of County Commissioner Larsen Jay, is the new regent for Tennessee on the Historic Preservation and Collections Board of George Washington's Mount Vernon, our first president’s home near Washington, D.C. She is the ninth regent from Tennessee.

Mount Vernon is owned and operated by a private organization, unlike many other presidential homes managed by the National Park Service, such as the homes of Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln.

Birthdays

May 27: Democratic state committee candidate Mark Siegel is 67. Businessman Bruce Bosse is 64. Teddy Phillips is 63. Omar Jubran is 36.

May 28: Home Federal banker Andy Self is 48. Paul Kedrow is 28. Attorney Garry Ferraris is 70. Rick Kuhlman is 72. Knoxville Symphony conductor Aram Demirjian and Knox County Election Commission chair Hannah Hopper are 36. Jeremy Pruitt is 48. Former New York mayor and Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is 78. Judy Loest is 75. Attorney William Vines III is 80.

May 29: Attorney John Eldridge is 74. Stacy Palado is 43. City Director Charles Lomax is 40. Former state rep Joe McCord is 54. Former county commissioner Pat Medley is 77. Scott Crammond is 33.

May 30: Former city councilman and county commissioner Ivan Harmon is 74. Elsbeth Freeman is 76. Michael Combs is 79. Former Chancellor David Cate is 81.

May 31: KUB's Gabe Bolas is 50. Retired Supreme Court chief justice Gary Wade is 74. Attorney David Hatfield is 65. Rabbi Alon Ferency is 47. Former state Rep. Dick Krieg, youngest person ever elected state representative from Knox County, is 76. Former councilwoman Barbara Pelot is 85. Nancy Harr is 70. Scott Whaley is 51. Clint Eastwood is 92.

June 1: Melissa McAdams is 69. Julie Gautreau is 57. Lynn Vogel is 73. David Wedekind is 67.

June 2: Faith Carpenter is 72. Clayton S. Wood is 42. Nathan A. Honeycutt is 43.

Victor Ashe can be reached at vhashe@aol.com.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: State high court should avoid partisan pick for attorney general