Attorney General Racine Releases Report on ‘The First 100 Days: The March Toward Justice’

Report Highlights Major Accomplishments in First 100 Days of Attorney General Racine’s Term

Washington, DC – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today released a comprehensive report highlighting major accomplishments of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in the first 100 days after he took office January 2. The report, titled “The First 100 Days: The March Toward Justice,” outlines accomplishments in areas such as standing up an independent OAG, defending the District’s autonomy, protecting consumers, reaching out to the community, and providing objective and independent legal advice to the District’s officials and agencies.

“When I took office as the District’s first elected Attorney General, I promised to fulfill the popular mandate of an overwhelming majority of District voters to stand up an independent OAG that would conduct the city’s law business in a fair and just manner and protect the public interest,” Attorney General Racine said, “That’s why I’ve spent my first months in office advocating for genuine independence for OAG, bolstering our efforts in community outreach and consumer protection, exploring ways to strengthen our juvenile-justice system as well as enforcement of our affordable-housing laws, and managing OAG’s law business.”

“The First 100 Days: The March Toward Justice” highlights key OAG accomplishments in the early days of 2015 in the areas of:

  • Standing Up an Independent Attorney General’s Office,including putting staff resources in place to effectuate independence and guarding the office’s jurisdiction and authority in areas such as reviews of major contracts and real-estate deals to ensure they are legally sufficient;
  • Reaching Out to the Community, including launching a new effort to augment OAG’s community outreach and hosting dozens of meetings with community groups;
  • Defending the District’s Autonomy, including providing crucial legal guidance to the Mayor, Council and other District officials as they implemented Initiative 71 despite congressional attempts to undo it;
  • Protecting Consumers, including bringing a $21.5 million settlement to the District’s coffers in a multistate action against a Wall Street firm and launching a new initiative to educate consumers;
  • Providing Objective and Independent Legal Advice,including advising the Mayor and DC Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor on ways to legally implement the DCPS Empowering Males of Color initiative and providing expert legal advice on major contracts and real-estate deals to ensure the District follows the law;
  • Preserving Affordable Housing, including launching an initiative to find ways to better enforce the District’s affordable-housing laws;
  • Enhancing Public Safety, including educating District residents about the city’s new marijuana laws as well as bringing legal actions to ensure neighborhood convenience stores stop selling dangerous synthetic drugs;
  • Protecting Taxpayers and Enforcing Honest Government,including ensuring the legal sufficiency of procurement contracts and closing more than 130 cases in the Tax Division of DC Superior Court;
  • Reforming Juvenile Justice, including bringing stakeholders together to end the blanket practice of shackling juvenile respondents in DC Superior Court and launching a comprehensive effort to find new ways to improve juvenile justice while protecting public safety;
  • Supporting Equal Rights for All, including filing friend-of-the-court briefs in the Supreme Court advocating for nationwide marriage equality and maintaining the integrity of the Affordable Care Act;
  • Using Government Resources Wisely, including attracting pro bono attorneys and interns to work for OAG and underspending the transition funds allocated to the Attorney General by more than half; and
  • Managing the District’s Legal Work, including collecting nearly $16 million in child support owed and arguing more than 20 cases on behalf of the District’s interests in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit or the DC Court of Appeals.

“The OAG staff have done absolutely tremendous work in these early days, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with them,” Attorney General Racine said. “I look forward to even greater successes in the future, and I am committed to taking what is already an excellent chief legal office for our city and ensuring it has the tools, resources and leadership it needs to be one of the nation’s very best public-interest legal organizations.”

A copy of the report is attached.