Attorney General William Sorrell, who joined with AGs around the country to sue and win a settlement with big tobacco companies worth millions of dollars, has been taken to task for this effort in a just-released study sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Sorrell was ranked seventh among the top ten worst AGs in a study by Hans Bader for CEI. Bader argues Sorrell and the other offending AGs have made a practice of exceeding the powers of their offices.

"Few attorneys general have done more damage to the fabric of the law than William Sorrell," Bader's article begins. Ouch! Bader complains that Sorrell successfully convinced the Legislature to pass a law that made tobacco companies retroactively liable for the state's Medicaid expenses for Vermonters with smoking-related illnesses. This was the basis for the lawsuit that Vermont and other states pursued with tobacco companies. The result was a settlement. Vermont now receives roughly $25 million a year in settlement payments from tobacco companies and beginning next year, will get an extra $10 million a year for a decade.

Bader argues this law sets a dangerous precedent for other businesses with products that could be alleged to have ill effects on public health.

I don't think Sorrell regrets what he did, but Bader thinks he should. Bader also criticizes Sorrell for joining other AGs in "meritless, overreaching global warming suits against out-of-state utilities and the Environmental Protection Agency."

To check out this study for yourself, go here.

-- Nancy Remsen