I speak from personal experience. In this instance, VERY personal experience. West Virginia has scarce resources. That scarcity impacts the budget of the Attorney General which, in this instance, is the employer of any state attorney who might take on this sort of claim. In West Virginia, the AG budget is mixed in the sense that the AG has certain pots of money that are dedicated to specific purposes; for example, the Criminal Appellate Division is responsible for defending virtually every criminal appeal in the state, and the Legislature allocates a specific sum of money for that purpose. But the AG also has funds that can been spent in a discretionary way; perhaps to support criminal appeal work (which is typically underfunded), or whatever agenda the AG wants to pursue. In the West Virginia AG office when newly elected Governor Morrisey was AG, a good chunk of those discretionary funds went to the Solicitor General’s “division.” There were many very fine lawyers in that division, including some of the best in the AG office. Those lawyers typically worked on particularly difficult or problematic matters. The value of some of those matters may differ depending on your political point of view. For example, Morrisey fought the USEPA with some measure of success (whether you think that is a good or bad thing). Ultimately, the AG budget is finite and so is the time available for AG lawyers. So when resources are scarce, do you want to dedicate your last resource to keeping bad guys in prison? Fighting alleged government overreach? Or fighting a petty injustice visited on the Old Gold and Blue? Because that is the kind of choice someone in the new AG’s administration will be making.