Patrick Morrisey

Patrick James Morrisey (born December 21, 1967) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 34th Attorney General of West Virginia since 2013.

He is a member of the Republican Party.

Morrisey ran cross-country and played on his high school's tennis team, before he graduated from the St. Thomas Aquinas High School / Bishop George Ahr High School in 1985.

Morrisey was active in Republican politics early in life having worked on George Bush's Presidential campaign in 1988, Cary Edwards’ gubernatorial campaign in 1989, and was press secretary of Christine Todd Whitman's U.S. Senate campaign in the 1990.

Morrisey graduated with honors from Rutgers College with a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science in 1989.

He also attended Rutgers School of Law–Newark, receiving his juris doctor in 1992.

After graduating from Rutgers, Morrisey lived in Westfield, New Jersey and opened a private law firm in 1992.

He practiced health care, election, regulatory and communications law at Arent Fox, a national white shoe law firm and lobbying firm, from 1995 to 1999.

Morrisey served as deputy staff director and chief health counsel for the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce from 1999 to 2004, where he worked on the passage of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness Response Act and the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (establishing Medicare Part D).

He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in New Jersey's 7th congressional district in 2000, receiving 9% of the vote in the Republican primary.

Morrisey was opposed to abortion with exceptions and faced fierce opposition from anti-abortion leaders and groups in the district.

From 2004 to 2012, Morrisey worked as a lawyer in Washington D.C. He was a partner at the corporate law firm Sidley Austin before he joined King & Spalding in 2010, becoming a partner.

As a lobbyist, he was viewed as an expert on health and drug-related regulations and legislation.

He was paid $250,000 to lobby on behalf of a pharmaceutical trade group.

The group was funded by some of the same opioid distributors that West Virginia sued for flooding the state with opioids.

Morrisey was elected Attorney General of West Virginia in 2012, becoming the first Republican to serve in the role since 1933.

In 2012, Morrisey ran for Attorney General of West Virginia against Darrell McGraw, a five-term incumbent.

The D.C. Circuit had already ruled less than two years earlier in December 2012 on this issue in Las Brisas Energy Center v. EPA.

The court dismissed the case with a single short sentence: "The challenged proposed rule is not final agency action subject to judicial review."

He defeated McGraw and was sworn in on January 14, 2013, making him the first Republican state Attorney General to serve in West Virginia since 1933.

Morrisey sued the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release its data on opioid sales, and about the sales quota system that it uses to regulate opioid manufacturers, the first ever such lawsuit in West Virginia history.

He placed a hold on the lawsuit after successfully negotiating with the Trump administration to have the DEA reconsider whether or not to amend the aggregate quota system.

American Farm Bureau v. EPA. On September 13, 2013, in American Farm Bureau Federation v. EPA, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said that the EPA had the authority under the Clean Water Act to impose a total maximum daily load standard for pollutants and that the procedures established were consistent with the Administrative Procedure Act.

This is contrary to the argument by Morrisey's amicus brief, which said that the "EPA's overreach in the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TDML) infringes states' traditional rights the Clean Water Act intended to protect."

Mingo Logan Coal v. EPA. On March 24, 2014, in Mingo Logan Coal Company v. EPA, the Supreme Court of the United States denied the petition for writ of certiorari.

The Court rejected the argument in Morrisey's brief that said that the "EPA unlawfully vetoed permits issued by the United States Army Corps of Engineers."

White Stallion v. EPA. On April 15, 2014, in White Stallion Energy Center v. EPA, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) rule regulation of emissions from coal-fired electric generating units was appropriate and necessary and that the EPA acted within its legal authority and demonstrated a reasonable connection between its action and the record of decision.

The Court rejected the argument in Morrisey's brief that said that the "EPA rule usurped the states' authority by setting minimum substantive requirements for state performance standards."

Homer City v. EPA. On April 29, 2014, in EPA v. EME Homer City Generation, the U.S. Supreme Court said the EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule was a cost-effective allocation of emission reductions among upwind States and is a permissible, workable, and equitable interpretation of the Good Neighbor Provision.

The Court rejected the argument in Morrisey's brief that claimed that the "EPA exceeded its authority under the federal Clean Air Act when it promulgated the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule".

Utility Air v. EPA. On June 23, 2014, in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the EPA reasonably interpreted the Act to require sources that would need permits based on their emission of conventional pollutants to comply with Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for greenhouse gases and that EPA's decision to require BACT for greenhouse gases emitted by sources otherwise subject to Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) review is, as a general matter, a permissible interpretation of the statute.

The Court rejected the argument in Morrisey's brief that said that the "EPA violated the U.S. Constitution and the Clean Air Act by concocting greenhouse gas regulations" and that court needed to "rein in a usurpatious agency and remind the President and his subordinates that they cannot rule by executive decree."

Murray Energy v. EPA. On June 25, 2014, Morrisey and other attorneys general submitted an amicus brief in Murray Energy v. EPA before the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit This lawsuit was prematurely filed before EPA had issued the final standards, which were not due until June 1, 2015.

National Mining v. EPA. On July 11, 2014, in National Mining Association vs EPA, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that the EPA and the U.S. Corps of Engineers had the statutory authority under the Clean Water Act to enact a procedure rule (Enhanced Coordination Process memorandum) to review mountaintop mining permits.

The Court rejected the argument in Morrisey's brief that claimed that the "EPA was attempting to take for itself responsibilities reserved to the states and other federal agencies."

West Virginia et al. v. EPA. On July 31, 2014, Morrisey and attorneys general from other states filed a lawsuit West Virginia et al. v. EPA in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging a court ordered settlement over three years earlier on March 2, 2011, between the EPA and 11 states - New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia.

In this settlement, EPA promised to issue its now-pending rule establishing standards of performance for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Electric Utility Steam Generating Units (EGUs).

Running for the United States Senate in 2018, Morrisey won the Republican Party nomination, but was narrowly defeated by incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Manchin in the November general election.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Morrisey grew up in Edison, New Jersey.

His father was an account manager at U.S. Steel, while his mother worked as a registered nurse.