Tennessee’s Legal Warrior: Jonathan Skrmetti’s Biggest Case Awaits Supreme Court Verdict

Jonathan Skrmetti is on a winning streak. Tennessee’s attorney general is hoping it continues all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Skrmetti announced Thursday his latest win, a $7.4 billion settlement with members of the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma for fueling the opioid epidemic. Tennessee was among the 15 states that accused the company of creating a crisis across America that led to opioid addictions and overdose deaths. 

A week earlier, Skrmetti won a consumer protection lawsuit against BlackRock, ensuring that Tennesseans’ retirement funds will no longer be used to support the environmental, social, and governance agenda.  

“Tennessee beats ESG!” Skrmetti wrote on X. “BlackRock’s stringent obligations under this settlement ensure Tennesseans will not see their retirement funds used to support radical ideologies they oppose. Transparency and accountability guarantee consumers an informed choice.”

Those victories might eventually pale in comparison to a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, which will decide if states can protect minors from transgender medical procedures. 

As the Supreme Court deliberates the groundbreaking case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, the attorney general spoke to Heritage President Kevin Roberts on his weekly podcast, “The Kevin Roberts Show.” The court is expected to rule on the case at the end of its term in June. 

Skrmetti and Roberts discussed a wide range of topics, from combatting the ESG movement in Tennessee to his recent victory halting the Biden administration’s rewrite of Title IX.

He detailed his concerns with the regulatory approach of the Biden administration, saying, “I think the apotheosis of that overreach has been the Title IX rule.” 

Title IX was enacted in 1972 to prohibit sex-based discrimination in schools and education programs that receive federal funding. Starting under the Obama administration and continuing during Biden’s reign, Democrats have attempted to use Title IX to advance their gender ideology agenda. 

That came to a halt Jan. 9 when a federal court in Kentucky ruled that the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX rule was unconstitutional. The Biden administration would have required educators to use pronouns inconsistent with a student’s sex and allowed students to use facilities that do not align with their sex. 

The case, called Tennessee v. Cardona, marked another major win for Skrmetti and Alliance Defending Freedom. 

Skrmetti, who sought to protect minors from LGBTQ ideology, called Biden’s effort a “totalitarian intrusion into every American school and university.” 

He explained how making major changes to American law through the current regulatory process bypasses key democratic principles.  

“You eliminate the need for consensus, you eliminate the transparency, you eliminate the public participation in the process, and ultimately, you alienate Americans from their government,” he warned. 

The attorney general hopes Tennessee v. Cardona and other regulatory cases brought by attorneys general will “force structural change in the approach of every executive branch.” 

When asked how America can continue to keep its system of law working, Skrmetti said, “When you look at the size and scope of the executive branch, Congress doesn’t have the muscle to exert real oversight.”  

He told Roberts that Congress does not have the necessary expertise to author “complicated legislation,” too often deferring instead to executive branch agencies. 

Watch the full episode of “The Kevin Roberts Show” to hear Skrmetti discuss the fight against government overreach, protecting minors from transgender ideology, and the ongoing U.S. v. Skrmetti case. 

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