AG can pass out contracts to law firms that make campaign donations

Sid Salter at the Jackson Clarion-Ledger gives a rundown of the ongoing fight over the Mississippi attorney general’s use of outside counsel, recalling the influence that trial lawyers had on drafting the law that allows the AG to hire lawyers without input from the Legislature or the governor.   Before he went to jail for bribing judges, trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs said the situation creates a “magic jurisdiction … where the judiciary is elected with verdict money [and] the trial lawyers have established relationships with the judges that are elected.”