Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III today announced an historic $26 billion agreement that will bring desperately needed relief to people across the country struggling with opioid addiction. The agreement is between state and local governments and Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen – the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors – and Johnson & Johnson, which manufactured and marketed opioids. The agreement would resolve investigations and litigation over the companies’ roles in creating and fueling the opioid epidemic. The agreement also requires significant industry changes that will help prevent this type of crisis from happening again. State negotiations were led by Attorneys General Josh Stein (NC), Herbert Slatery (TN), and the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, along with a coalition of 37 attorneys general, has filed a lawsuit against Google in California. The suit alleges exclusionary conduct relating to the Google Play Store for Android mobile devices and Google Play Billing. This antitrust lawsuit is the latest of many legal actions asserting that the tech giant uses illegal, anticompetitive, and unfair business practices. The States accuse Google of using its dominance to unfairly restrict competition with the Google Play Store, conduct that harms consumers by limiting choice and driving up app prices.

Nashville- In a letter to President Joe Biden, Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, along with 20 other state attorneys general, voiced opposition to the unlawful regulatory guidance recently issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Department of Education. The new guidelines attempt to force radical changes on nearly every employer and school across the nation. The letter provides: “By unilaterally plunging ahead with these sweeping dictates,” the administration “harms the rule of law and undermines the legitimacy of these executive agencies.”

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III and 21 other state attorneys general wrote to congressional leaders Monday, urging Congress to maintain the Hyde Amendment in the 2022 budget. The amendment, prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions, was removed by the Biden Administration despite its inclusion in federal budgets for the last forty-five years.

Nashville—Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III is joining a coalition of 47 Attorneys General in urging congressional leaders to support the Fraud and Scam Reduction Act. The act, comprised of the Stop Senior Scam Act and Seniors Fraud Prevention Act of 2021, will assist stakeholders in training employees to recognize the warning signs of elder fraud and to prevent irreversible damage to elderly victims.

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit designed to challenge Tennessee’s Medicaid Block Grant waiver amendment.

Nashville– Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III has joined a coalition of 19 states supporting an Arkansas law that would prohibit abortions solely based on a pre-natal Down Syndrome diagnosis. The Missouri-led group has filed an amicus brief this morning in Leslie Rutledge v. Little Rock Planning Services.

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III is leading a coalition of 44 attorneys general urging Facebook to abandon its plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13.

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, along with the attorneys general of 38 states, is urging Congress to pass the EAGLES Act, a national program to prevent targeted school violence. The legislation is named after the mascot of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 people were killed February 14th, 2018. The Act would expand the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) with a greater focus on school violence prevention.

Nashville- The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the State’s motion for a stay pending appeal in Bristol Regional Women’s Center v. Slatery. This Order comes after the entire Sixth Circuit reconsidered an earlier ruling from a three-judge panel of the Court.

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III today joined Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in a lawsuit challenging a mandate from the Biden Administration in the American Rescue Plan Act (the Act). The lawsuit, filed against Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, argues that the tax mandate unconstitutionally usurps the authority of each State’s legislature to enact beneficial tax policies.

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III urged the U.S. Department of Education to cancel federal student loan debt for some students who attended ITT Technical Institute. The now defunct for-profit school defrauded thousands of individuals by encouraging them to enroll and borrow loans based on false and misleading information about the value of an ITT degree.

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced that Tennessee, as part of a coalition of 41 Attorneys General, has settled with Retrieval-Masters Creditors Bureau, a debt collection agency doing business as American Medical Collection Agency (“AMCA”). The settlement resolves a multistate investigation into the 2019 data breach that exposed the personal information of over 7 million individuals, including 132,451 Tennesseans.

Nashville- Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III today announced a multistate settlement with Boston Scientific Corporation (Boston) to resolve allegations of deceptive marketing of its surgical mesh products for women. The settlement requires Boston to pay $188.6 million to 47 states and the District of Columbia. Tennessee’s share of the settlement is $4,900,958.

Nashville- Purdue Pharma announced that it filed its bankruptcy plan before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York as March 15 was the deadline to file the plan for reorganization. “While the Purdue Pharma plan filing represents a significant step toward providing crucial opioid abatement resources, Tennessee’s support is still contingent on remaining unresolved issues,” said Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III. “The States will continue negotiating with the Debtors to finalize terms that maximize the needed abatement funds for all States and their local communities.”