{"id":142440,"date":"2026-01-22T18:10:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/22\/state-ag-asks-for-formal-legal-opinion-from-himself\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:10:51","slug":"state-ag-asks-for-formal-legal-opinion-from-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/22\/state-ag-asks-for-formal-legal-opinion-from-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"State AG Asks For Formal Legal Opinion From Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier dropped an official opinion<\/a> declaring that he\u2019s decided to void scores of civil rights laws in Florida as unconstitutional. After noting that \u201cracial discrimination is wrong\u201d \u2014 the first half of the time-honored, \u201cI\u2019m not racist, but<\/em>\u2026\u201d formula \u2014 Uthmeier launched into his case that the REAL racial discrimination is against white people. <\/p>\n

And by \u201cearlier this week,\u201d we mean very specifically on Martin Luther King Jr. Day<\/em>. What a crazy coincidence! Of all the days to disrupt the news cycle with a targeted message to white grievance voters, he chose MLK Day? And he wasn\u2019t even the only state AG to do this, you say? Wild!<\/p>\n

But also, in an act of bureaucratic auto-eroticism, Uthmeier issued the opinion based on a formal request from\u2026 himself. \u201cTherefore, I requested, and I am now giving, an official opinion in writing on a question of law relating to my official duties,\u201d Uthmeier wrote in a section flagged on social media by reporter Jason Garcia<\/a>. \u201cAs Florida\u2019s chief legal officer, the constitutionality of laws that seek to mandate discrimination based on race relates to my official duties as Attorney General.\u201d <\/p>\n

Are those voices in the room with us right now, James?<\/em><\/p>\n

Florida law provides that the state\u2019s AG must provide legal opinions \u201con the written requisition of the Governor, a member of the Cabinet, the head of a department in the executive branch,\u201d and legislative leadership. The authors of that law probably never considered the possibility that a grandstanding attorney general, as a member of the cabinet, would try to get high on their own supply of legal opinions. The law is modeled on an attorney-client dynamic: someone asks the state\u2019s official lawyer and the state\u2019s lawyer answers. <\/p>\n

Self-dealing is, of course, a hallmark of modern GOP politics, so rather than wait for a client request, Uthmeier gave himself a little treat for MLK Day, managing to get taxpayers to pay for an anti-affirmative action campaign stunt. On that note, the Daily Wire claims it \u201cfirst obtained\u201d the opinion<\/a>, lest there be any doubt that this is just pre-buttered culture war content. For those not keeping score, last year Uthmeier tried to piggyback off the Trump administration\u2019s assault on Biglaw by using his office to scold law firms for having vague \u201cDEI\u201d policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because there\u2019s no other reason for this opinion. In a normal, ethically sound world, a state attorney general would respect that attorney-client framework and wait for, say, Governor Ron DeSantis to formally seek an opinion bashing affirmative action. Or, if Uthmeier insisted upon bringing the request of his own volition, the office would commission some right-wing law firm or law professor to paper up a tidy memo. As a former Jones Day associate<\/a>, Uthmeier certainly knows where to find some Federalist Society veterans to DoorDash over some half-hearted originalism.<\/p>\n

The problem with following standard procedure is sharing credit. No matter how strident the opinion Uthmeier might write, people would credit DeSantis for ordering the opinion. And no matter how much Uthmeier might stress that he requested it, he couldn\u2019t control the campaign rhetoric of an opinion farmed out to a law firm. With this move he can have his cake and make sure it\u2019s not decorated by any minority-owned businesses too.<\/p>\n

Aside from presenting warmed-over conservative legal philosophy tropes like \u201cThe way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race\u201d \u2014 a line that must hit hard if you\u2019re stupid \u2014 the opinion doesn\u2019t really do<\/em> much. The statutes remain on the books and courts will ultimately decide whether they stay there. And, if you\u2019re betting your mortgage on the prediction markets, you could do worse than assuming the Supreme Court finally snuffs out the legacy of the civil rights movement. Until then, the job of the state attorney general is to enforce the laws the other branches have created.<\/p>\n

Even if he wanted to push the walls of the separation of powers and refuse to enforce the law, nothing about that<\/em> decision would require an announcement either. This was just a blog post on official letterhead.<\/p>\n

And if Florida\u2019s opinion was a message board post, Texas AG Ken Paxton used the holiday to uncork a self-important Substack screed. As opposed to Florida\u2019s six pages of argument, Paxton used Dr. King\u2019s holiday for a 74-page digital doorstop<\/a><\/em> railing against all manifestations of DEI. Has Paxton never heard that brevity is the soul of bigotry?<\/p>\n

At least Uthmeier had the decency to ask himself permission in a legally themed Sm\u00e9agol and Gollum act. Paxton doesn\u2019t even trifle with the legal onanism of requesting his own opinion and just throws his taxpayer-funded office into a holiday assault on racial diversity to suck up headlines just in time for his contentious Senate primary fight against the comparatively moderate-framed John Cornyn. Federalist Papers, revisionist history about Reconstruction, obligatory claims that MLK believed in a \u201ccolor-blind\u201d society\u2026 this thing has it all. Now that\u2019s a law school gunner in action!<\/p>\n

No matter how they justified it, taking the unilateral step of releasing racial grievance rants on Martin Luther King Day is clown behavior. It\u2019s performative politics at its most toxic, where records and accomplishments are secondary to making sure the public understands exactly who is willing to take it upon themselves to post up in that proverbial schoolhouse door.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post State AG Asks For Formal Legal Opinion From Himself<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier dropped an official opinion<\/a> declaring that he\u2019s decided to void scores of civil rights laws in Florida as unconstitutional. After noting that \u201cracial discrimination is wrong\u201d \u2014 the first half of the time-honored, \u201cI\u2019m not racist, but<\/em>\u2026\u201d formula \u2014 Uthmeier launched into his case that the REAL racial discrimination is against white people. <\/p>\n

And by \u201cearlier this week,\u201d we mean very specifically on Martin Luther King Jr. Day<\/em>. What a crazy coincidence! Of all the days to disrupt the news cycle with a targeted message to white grievance voters, he chose MLK Day? And he wasn\u2019t even the only state AG to do this, you say? Wild!<\/p>\n

But also, in an act of bureaucratic auto-eroticism, Uthmeier issued the opinion based on a formal request from\u2026 himself. \u201cTherefore, I requested, and I am now giving, an official opinion in writing on a question of law relating to my official duties,\u201d Uthmeier wrote in a section flagged on social media by reporter Jason Garcia<\/a>. \u201cAs Florida\u2019s chief legal officer, the constitutionality of laws that seek to mandate discrimination based on race relates to my official duties as Attorney General.\u201d <\/p>\n

Are those voices in the room with us right now, James?<\/em><\/p>\n

Florida law provides that the state\u2019s AG must provide legal opinions \u201con the written requisition of the Governor, a member of the Cabinet, the head of a department in the executive branch,\u201d and legislative leadership. The authors of that law probably never considered the possibility that a grandstanding attorney general, as a member of the cabinet, would try to get high on their own supply of legal opinions. The law is modeled on an attorney-client dynamic: someone asks the state\u2019s official lawyer and the state\u2019s lawyer answers. <\/p>\n

Self-dealing is, of course, a hallmark of modern GOP politics, so rather than wait for a client request, Uthmeier gave himself a little treat for MLK Day, managing to get taxpayers to pay for an anti-affirmative action campaign stunt. On that note, the Daily Wire claims it \u201cfirst obtained\u201d the opinion<\/a>, lest there be any doubt that this is just pre-buttered culture war content. For those not keeping score, last year Uthmeier tried to piggyback off the Trump administration\u2019s assault on Biglaw by using his office to scold law firms for having vague \u201cDEI\u201d policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because there\u2019s no other reason for this opinion. In a normal, ethically sound world, a state attorney general would respect that attorney-client framework and wait for, say, Governor Ron DeSantis to formally seek an opinion bashing affirmative action. Or, if Uthmeier insisted upon bringing the request of his own volition, the office would commission some right-wing law firm or law professor to paper up a tidy memo. As a former Jones Day associate<\/a>, Uthmeier certainly knows where to find some Federalist Society veterans to DoorDash over some half-hearted originalism.<\/p>\n

The problem with following standard procedure is sharing credit. No matter how strident the opinion Uthmeier might write, people would credit DeSantis for ordering the opinion. And no matter how much Uthmeier might stress that he requested it, he couldn\u2019t control the campaign rhetoric of an opinion farmed out to a law firm. With this move he can have his cake and make sure it\u2019s not decorated by any minority-owned businesses too.<\/p>\n

Aside from presenting warmed-over conservative legal philosophy tropes like \u201cThe way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race\u201d \u2014 a line that must hit hard if you\u2019re stupid \u2014 the opinion doesn\u2019t really do<\/em> much. The statutes remain on the books and courts will ultimately decide whether they stay there. And, if you\u2019re betting your mortgage on the prediction markets, you could do worse than assuming the Supreme Court finally snuffs out the legacy of the civil rights movement. Until then, the job of the state attorney general is to enforce the laws the other branches have created.<\/p>\n

Even if he wanted to push the walls of the separation of powers and refuse to enforce the law, nothing about that<\/em> decision would require an announcement either. This was just a blog post on official letterhead.<\/p>\n

And if Florida\u2019s opinion was a message board post, Texas AG Ken Paxton used the holiday to uncork a self-important Substack screed. As opposed to Florida\u2019s six pages of argument, Paxton used Dr. King\u2019s holiday for a 74-page digital doorstop<\/a><\/em> railing against all manifestations of DEI. Has Paxton never heard that brevity is the soul of bigotry?<\/p>\n

At least Uthmeier had the decency to ask himself permission in a legally themed Sm\u00e9agol and Gollum act. Paxton doesn\u2019t even trifle with the legal onanism of requesting his own opinion and just throws his taxpayer-funded office into a holiday assault on racial diversity to suck up headlines just in time for his contentious Senate primary fight against the comparatively moderate-framed John Cornyn. Federalist Papers, revisionist history about Reconstruction, obligatory claims that MLK believed in a \u201ccolor-blind\u201d society\u2026 this thing has it all. Now that\u2019s a law school gunner in action!<\/p>\n

No matter how they justified it, taking the unilateral step of releasing racial grievance rants on Martin Luther King Day is clown behavior. It\u2019s performative politics at its most toxic, where records and accomplishments are secondary to making sure the public understands exactly who is willing to take it upon themselves to post up in that proverbial schoolhouse door.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post State AG Asks For Formal Legal Opinion From Himself<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier dropped an official opinion declaring that he\u2019s decided to void scores of civil rights laws in Florida as unconstitutional. After noting that \u201cracial discrimination is wrong\u201d \u2014 the first half of the time-honored, \u201cI\u2019m not racist, but\u2026\u201d formula \u2014 Uthmeier launched into his case that the REAL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}