Keith Ellison ushers in new era for Minnesota Attorney General's Office
With one hand on a Qur’an, Keith Ellison ushered in a new era Monday for the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, promising to use his new role as “the People’s Lawyer” as a vehicle that will take the office’s reach to every corner of the state.
“Minnesotans deserve an Attorney General’s Office where they can count on fair treatment and equal justice,” Ellison said during his inaugural address inside the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. “And they won’t just come to us — we will go to them. There is no town, no county too small or too far from the metro that my office will not do everything it can to help.”
For the first time in more than a decade, Minnesota has a new chief legal officer as Ellison follows Lori Swanson, who departed following an unsuccessful bid for governor last year. Ellison, the state’s 30th Attorney General is also its first African-American and first Muslim to hold the office. Ellison was also the first Muslim elected to Congress, where he served six terms before capturing his first statewide office in November.
Ellison made an early vow to target prescription drug prices among his chief priorities and is also expected to play a prominent role alongside other Democratic state attorneys general who have used their offices to wage legal challenges to federal policies emanating from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/keith-ellison-ushers-in-new-era-for-minnesota-attorney-general-s-office/504008982/