New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has led a years-long Don Quixote-esque political persecution of ExxonMobil. An ongoing, rolling abuse of his power as the Empire State’s chief lawyer – and a gross dereliction of that office’s actual duties.
Schneiderman is engaged in all of this ideological obnoxiousness – because he believes in the myth that is global warming…oops, I mean climate change. Or, more likely, he believes – and revels – in the very real massive increase in government that goes along with the implementation of the belief in the myth of climate change.
Schneiderman claims he is going after Exxon – for knowing climate change is real, and hiding that information from the public. Which almost assuredly isn’t true – since, you know, climate change isn’t true. And even if it is and they did – it isn’t actually, you know, a crime.
Schneiderman may believe that Exxon possesses evidence that unicorns are real. This we do not know. What we do know is that Schneiderman is going after Exxon for giving money to climate change realist non-profit organizations (full disclosure: our Less Government has never been one of them). Which not only isn’t a crime – it’s a First Amendment-protected freedom-of-speech activity.
And in the grander scheme of things, Schneiderman is going after Exxon – for having the audacity to engage in legal commerce. Selling their legal product in legal ways on an open, legal market. (An international market, by the way – so this has nothing to do with the office of one U.S. state’s Attorney General.)
Exxon’s product is oil. And Schneiderman loathes oil. So in the name of government-growing climate change, he is going after them.
No matter how one wishes to slice it – Schneiderman isn’t doing what he’s supposed to be doing. It is…inordinately un-Attorney-General-like. And it’s not just me saying it. Eleven actual Attorneys General are too. Call it a legal intervention.
Several AGs Call Out NY Dem’s ‘Unconstitutional’ Anti-Exxon Probes: “Republican AGs from 11 states, including Oklahoma, Utah and Texas, filed an amicus brief Wednesday castigating a Democrat-led probe against the oil company’s handling of decades worth of climate data.
“The authors of the amicus believe the pursuit of Exxon violates the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution and constitutes an ‘unconstitutional abuse of investigative power.’”
Just a little unconstitutional and abusive, yes. Oh – and these eleven AGs are not the first people to sue out-of-control Schneiderman.
Anything else from the eleven AGs?: “Their brief also asserts that New York AG Eric Schneiderman and his Massachusetts’ colleague Maura Healey are seeking to “promote one side of [the] international public policy debate” on climate change issues, which should not be up to the courts to decide.”
Yes, this is a legislative issue. To be decided by our elected representatives in America’s legislatures.
But the Left has been suffering increasing damage at the ballot box. Dealt by We the People – who in increasing numbers don’t want the Left to represent us.
So the Left is increasingly looking to bypass We the People, the legislatures we elect and the legislative processes through which things like climate change are supposed to be addressed. And is instead jamming through their worldview via Leftist activist judges in the courts.
Which is exactly what Schneiderman is trying to do here. And here, unfortunately, he may be in luck: “The brief was filed on behalf of Exxon in a case that will be heard Friday by Judge Valerie Caproni, a (Barack) Obama-era appointee who put an end earlier this month to a lawsuit filed last year by Exxon attorneys in Texas.”
What we need Obama-appointee Caproni to do is…her job. Be a judge – not an ideological activist pretending to be a one-woman legislature.
If she does her job, she will summarily dispatch Schneiderman and his years-long persecutorial ridiculousness.
Because Schneiderman is way, WAY wrong.
We all should be most appreciative of these eleven AGs for their intervention. For trying to restore the boundaries of – and confidence in – the offices of attorney general.
Which Schneiderman has spent the last several years nigh-singlehandedly strip mining.
This first appeared in Red State.