April 8, 2025 – With the National Association of Attorneys General holding its annual meeting in Tennessee this week, members accustomed to clashing over presidential political issues are instead looking to bond on matters of common concern.
The symposium that kicked off Monday in Nashville and runs through tomorrow afternoon is shedding light on topics like prison mobile phone jamming legislation, Supreme Court cases, human trafficking, cannabis and artificial intelligence.
Attorneys general from 19 states and territories are scheduled to attend, including Republican Dave Sunday of Pennsylvania and Democrat Jeff Jackson of North Carolina. Tennessee Republican Jonathan Skrmetti is hosting the event and moderating the first panel discussion.
Staffers from state attorneys general offices from across the nation including Louisiana, Ohio, Massachusetts and Kansas are also expected to attend.
While participants are not expected to discuss recent policies issued by President Donald Trump’s administration, the political backdrop to the proceedings is that Democratic attorneys general now find themselves in a role that their Republican counterparts adopted during President Joe Biden’s time in office. The GOP group filed more than 100 multistate lawsuits during Biden’s term.
With Trump in office, Democrats are seeking to challenge Elon Musk’s cost-cutting authority, halt mass firings and restore federal medical research funding.
North Carolina’s Jackson, California’s Rob Bonta and others have sued Trump over his order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants. Skrmetti and other Republican attorneys general have filed an amicus brief supporting Trump’s position.
A majority of symposium attendees are Democrats.
Hope you like jamming, too
Skrmetti is slated to guide a discussion featuring Jackson, of North Carolina, and Tim Griffin of Arkansas about federal legislation that would allow phone-jamming in prisons.
The Cellphone Jamming Reform Act — sponsored by Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., — is designed to prevent inmates from using contraband cellphones in prisons. During a press conference in Washington last month, Kustoff cited an instance in which a Tennessee inmate used a contraband cellphone to organize drug shipments through his girlfriend.
Kustoff, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said that coordinated criminal activity carried out by inmates is a “serious threat” to prison staff, inmates and the public. He added that it should not be possible for people behind bars to order hits on people, conduct gang activity and traffic drugs.
“When criminals go to prison, their days of calling the shots are over,” Kustoff said. “They shouldn’t be able to do it from behind the prison walls. If there is no cell signal, there is no crime.”
The moderator and panelists were part of a coalition of 30 attorneys general, who signed a letter last month urging Congress to pass the measure. Other signees include Kris Mayes of Arizona, Todd Rokita of Indiana, Liz Murrill of Louisiana, Dana Nessel of Michigan, Dave Yost of Ohio and Sunday of Pennsylvania.
“Contraband cell phones pose a serious risk to public safety when criminals reach beyond prison walls and continue terrorizing our communities,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “This legislation finally gives states the tools they need to stop this illegal and dangerous activity.”
The letter highlights how inmates used illicit phones to orchestrate violence inside and outside prisons, run fraud schemes, plot escapes and intimidate and terrorize witnesses and victims’ families.
A gang member, using a contraband phone, led a failed plot to kidnap and murder a North Carolina prosecutor’s father, according to the attorneys general.
The letter cited a 2020 survey of 20 state corrections departments that uncovered more than 25,000 contraband cellphones in a year.
The proposed technology would avoid disrupting emergency calls and official communications. Currently, federal law bans states from jamming signals, as it can interfere with 911 calls and threaten public safety correspondence.
Cotton and Kustoff responded to concerns by saying jamming technology has improved to the point where only known numbers can be registered for authorized use and signals would be blocked only within housing units, not entire prisons.
“Having the ability to jam cell phone communications in a prison environment will create a safer work space for the staff and a safer environment for the inmate population to engage in rehabilitative and education programs crucial to the successful re-entry in our communities,” said Tennessee Correction Commissioner Frank Strada.
By Julia Baker, State Affairs
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