By A.J. Kaufman, Managing Editor
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti visited the region Aug. 12 for a discussion at the MeadowView Marriott Conference Resort & Convention Center in Kingsport.
Nearly 100 people attended the event co-hosted by chambers of commerce from Bristol, Elizabethton, Johnson City, Kingsport, Rogersville, Greene and Unicoi Counties.
Laura Durbin, senior labor and employment counsel from Eastman Chemical, facilitated a 30-minute talk with the Volunteer State’s 28th chief law enforcement officer.
Throughout the chat, Skrmetti discussed protecting small businesses from government overreach, which he says has been a focus of Gov. Bill Lee’s administration. He specifically spoke about burdens placed upon businesses, especially environmental ones placed on farmers, and says the government has “no statutory authority underlying that” and believes a shortcut is being taken around Congress.
Asked how businesses can partner with initiatives he outlined, Skrmetti says receiving information is the most critical.
“We know the law, we don’t know how your industry works and specific impacts,” he said. “If you have concerns about a regulation that’s coming down, talk to us. We need that information to put into our complaints to make sure there is a state interest at stake. Our system of government was designed to make sure power wasn’t concentrated in any one place…and when someone starts overreaching, it infringes on the ability of the other parts to do their job. We are in a situation now where there is a lot of infringement.”
Earlier this year, Skrmetti and the state of Tennessee had success with their antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA’s illegal name, image, and likeness (NIL)-recruitment ban, when a federal court granted a preliminary injunction regarding the suit. Tennessee and Virginia were the first states to sue the NCAA over anti-competitive restrictions on student-athletes.
“We have five states involved in it now, and I imagine the NCAA will fight, but I imagine they will probably want to resolve this…” the attorney general explained to the Business Journal and other press after the event. “We’re not just gonna rubber stamp anything. I think it is important that we make sure, going forward, our student-athletes have the protections they deserve. The law guarantees that they are entitled to a free market for their NIL rights. The previous rules were illegal.”
The Harvard Law School graduate was appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court in August 2022 to serve an eight-year term. He’s been active as a national leader, too.
Along with attorneys general from more than a dozen states, Skrmetti recently submitted a comment letter to the Department of the Treasury, emphasizing the need for fair and unbiased regulation of artificial intelligence in the financial services sector. The letter urges the Department to focus solely on risks to financial reliability and consumer protection rather than politicizing AI regulation or blocking state laws.
On Aug. 19, Skrmetti joined the U.S. Department of Justice in welcoming the attorneys general of Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont to Tennessee’s historic lawsuit against Ticketmaster-Live Nation. The additional states bring the total number of plaintiffs in the lawsuit to 41.
Overall, he consistently is focused on economic freedom for individuals and businesses.
“We understand how important it is for businesses to make decisions on their own, without having the government thumb driving them,” Skrmetti summarized during the interview. “They’re responding to their customers, and they know better than anyone else what their customers want. There has to be some sort of regulatory oversight but there’s a difference between New York and California and Tennessee, and we think Tennessee is clearly on the right side of that divide. The freedoms we enjoy…go hand in hand with constant human flourishing. The better we are at getting freedom right, the better we are at getting prosperity right.”
