Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said his office is focused on multiple fronts ranging from issues at the state level to advocating for issues that would impact the entire nation.
On Monday, Skrmetti and other attorneys general gathered in Nashville for the 2025 Attorney General Spring Symposium hosted by the National Association of Attorneys General.
Skrmetti was among the attorneys general who spoke on a panel regarding the multi-state push for Congress to allow state and federal prisons to use cellphone jamming systems as an effort to curb contraband cellphones.
Last month, Skrmetti led a bipartisan coalition of 30 attorneys general in calling on congressional lawmakers to pass the Cellphone Jamming Reform Act, filed as H.R. 2350 and S. 1137, introduced in the U.S. House by Tennessee Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-08) and in the U.S. Senate by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR).
On Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Skrmetti said he would like to see the bill passed given the bipartisan support behind the cause.
“The existing technologies used to block calls coming out of prisons just are not getting it done. The reason people are in prison is because they are dangerous people, and if you give them cellphones, they can continue to organize crimes. They can continue to run their criminal enterprises from inside. They can threaten witnesses…People can get up to no good,” Skrmetti explained.
“I hope it passes. It should pass. The polling on it is very strong, but we’ll see what happens. I’m not a prognosticator of Congress but I know David Kustoff has been working really hard on this. Tom Cotton’s been working really hard on this, and the bipartisan attorney general community supports it very strongly. Hopefully that means something,” Skrmetti added.
Another national issue Skrmetti’s office is spearheading is in regards to President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Last month, Skrmetti submitted an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Trump’s efforts to reverse birthright citizenship, the legal right to citizenship granted to any person born inside the United States, even if they are born to illegal immigrants or tourists.
Skrmetti explained that his effort backing Trump’s executive order also takes issue with “the scope of relief that the district courts can enable.”
“Nationwide injunctions are a huge hot topic right now. We did an amicus brief that touched on birthright citizenship and I think that’s where all the attention was for people who saw it, but there’s a really important scope of relief argument there…The scope of relief is very broad, and the injunctions have stopped the state from enforcing the laws more broadly sometimes, and that’s not the way the constitutional structure is designed,” Skrmetti explained.
“Courts are supposed to have authority over cases and controversies in front of them and not be able to issue sweeping pronouncements. We’re seeing this really come to a head, with numerous courts engaging with the Trump administration and I think the Supreme Court has a very important role. They need to act now to reign this in. It’s already gone too far and it’s hurting the legitimacy of the courts in America. So I was really proud of the amicus brief that my office put together,” Skrmetti added.
On the state level, Skrmetti discussed a bill in the Tennessee General Assembly filed as HB 0910/SB 0861, which would transfer the duties of the Human Rights Commission to the attorney general.
Skrmetti said calls for the duties of the Human Rights Commission to be transferred to the attorney general have been made for several years as some argue the new structure would lead to “more efficient enforcement.”
“I think the idea is we’re pretty efficient. We get things done. In the Division of Consumer Affairs, which was transferred over to my office, we’re able to handle a really high volume of complaints. We’re able to resolve them to protect Tennesseans. When we need to elevate them to litigation, that happens very smoothly. It’s just a very refined, streamlined process,” Skrmetti explained.
“With civil rights enforcement, through no fault of anybody involved, it’s just a really cumbersome process and things don’t happen quickly. It drags on for the people who are complaining, it drags on for the businesses or residences or whatever organization you’re talking about that’s subject to investigation, and it’s just a clunky system. So if the General Assembly does send the authority to my office, we’re certainly able to get things done. I hope it’s clear that we don’t sit around. We’re trying to use the authority that the general assembly gives us for the benefit of Tennesseans, and if it comes to us, we will enforce those laws vigorously,” Skrmetti added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
