Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and 18 other attorneys general in opposing the Biden-Harris administration’s assertion that state laws preventing de-banking pose a “national security threat.” The coalition contends that this claim is an attempt to create confusion about state laws to further activist agendas.
“Never in my life did I think that I would see a day in the United States of America, where states would be forced to take action to protect their citizens from far-left radical experiments like a social credit score,” said Attorney General Marshall. “Under Biden-Harris leadership, the Treasury Department has been weaponized to threaten and browbeat states that push back against their radical ideology by making outrageous accusations that simply are not true.”
In a response to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the coalition of attorneys general stated, “No consumer or business should be denied services based on political beliefs or religious views or because of some arbitrary social credit score derived from ideological agendas. The letter deliberately misleads financial institutions about these state laws, for example, by falsely suggesting that laws such as Florida’s HB 989 would prohibit financial institutions from considering whether a consumer is associated with designated terrorist groups. On the contrary, laws like HB 989 ensure that financial institutions focus on true risk-based factors and stay out of the business of forcing radical social policies.”
The attorneys general also noted that the Treasury Department had previously not objected to similar language: “At the time, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network did not pose any objections to that language as creating a national security risk. Such an omission from criticism reveals that the Department’s current criticisms are the product of political posturing rather than any genuine concern that prohibiting discrimination somehow endangers national security.”
Attorney General Moody and her colleagues expressed hope for a future where federal regulators concentrate on their statutory duties instead of advancing political causes.
Joining Attorneys General Marshall and Moody are attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.