Paul Summers, the state AG in Tennessee seems to have time on his hands - he's after country singer Gretchen Wilson for her new song "Skoal Ring". Summers says that Wilson's removal of a can of Skoal from her pants pocket during performances of the song may violate the 1998 settlement between the states and tobacco companies. See the account here.

Without having seen the video of Wilson's performance or recently read the settlment (although I read it several years ago), I find this claim an implausible regulatory overreach - Ms. Wilson is not a party to the agreement and if she wants to wave Skoal cans at her concerts, that's just too bad for Mr. Summers.

The larger problem (and its relevance to The Commons) is that state AGs are becoming increasingly problemmatic regulators, threatening litigation to force through regulatory changes they could not otherwise obtain. (For an account of this at the federal level, you can read an early version of my paper, coauthored with Bruce Yandle and Andrew Dorchak on Choosing How to Regulate here. The final version appeared in the Harvard Environmental Law Review.)