LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued a statement after filing an amicus brief on behalf of himself and 13 other state attorneys general in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The brief supports Texas’s motion for summary judgment in its suit against the U.S. Department of Labor concerning a rule regulating overtime pay for exempt employees.
Griffin stated, "The rule is another example of the Biden-Harris administration trying to rewrite laws passed by Congress. The new rule drives up costs for private businesses and forces state governments to increase budgets—hitting Americans’ pocketbooks twice."
He added, "Texas has already secured a preliminary injunction stopping this rule, and I am proud to lead this coalition of states in supporting our neighbor asking to vacate this latest effort by the Biden-Harris administration to go around Congress in an election-year giveaway."
Federal law exempts workers with “executive, administrative, and professional” duties from receiving overtime pay. Historically, the Labor Department has used salary as one factor in determining when that applies. The new rule requires employers to provide overtime pay to salaried professional, administrative, and executive employees who are already highly paid and were previously exempt from overtime requirements by conditioning overtime exemptions primarily on workers’ pay rather than their duties.
Joining Griffin in the amicus brief are the attorneys general of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin:
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023. He previously served as Arkansas’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023 and as the representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District from 2011-2015. During his tenure in Congress, he served on several committees including Ways and Means; Armed Services; Foreign Affairs; Ethics; Judiciary; and also as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin has been an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for over 28 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. He was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell in Kentucky in 2005 and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
He is currently serving as Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans. His previous assignments include Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (formerly Bragg), North Carolina; Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon; among others.
Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies from U.S. Army War College where he graduated with Distinguished Honor Graduate recognition.
In addition to his military service roles: Griffin served as U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of Arkansas; Special Assistant to President George W. Bush; Deputy Director Political Affairs under Bush Administration among other roles within federal government legal divisions.
Griffin graduated from Magnolia High School followed by Hendrix College then Tulane Law School obtaining his Juris Doctorate degree later attending graduate school at Oxford University becoming licensed attorney practicing law actively within Arkansas while holding inactive status licensee within Louisiana jurisdiction residing Little Rock along wife Elizabeth originally Camden native raising three children together family unit community-oriented endeavors supported fully.