This is an opinion column.

Steve Marshall likes to sue over things. Some things, at least, but not all, and the difference is important.

Like last May, when he committed Alabama and its resources to sue the State of California over electric vehicle regulations. California wanted to require half of all heavy trucks sold in that state (not Alabama) to be electric vehicles.

Whether that was a solid idea or not, it’s good to know Marshall’s taste for federalism (aka, states’ rights) stops somewhere between the East Coast and the Alabama state line.

The key here was that the Biden Administration was a co-defendant for having let California make its own rules. Frequently Marshall has sued the Biden Administration over all sorts of hot-button political stuff, like climate change mitigation and trans women in sports.

Last November, his office declared victory in a lawsuit over immigrant workers hired by American farms. That might not come as a surprise, as we know how Donald Trump’s GOP thinks about immigrants, right?

Not exactly.

Marshall’s office didn’t sue to stop farmers from hiring cheaper immigrant labor over more expensive American labor. He sued the Biden Administration to stop immigrant labor from being able to bargain collectively for better pay and benefits.

That’s right. He sued to keep immigrant labor cheap, not to get rid of it.

Marshall, it would seem, is not ideologically or politically consistent. Nor, should we walk away from this thinking that his office is putting in a lot of work. Most of the legal actions his office touts have been led by other states. His office merely lent them Alabama’s name.

But not always.

When 41 states, including Republican strongholds like Georgia and South Carolina, sued Meta, claiming Instagram was recklessly messing up kids’ mental health, Alabama took a pass.

And when the decision falls between the Trump Administration and Alabama interests, you can probably guess where Marshall is going to land.

When Donald Trump froze NIH funding for medical research at universities, including UAB in Alabama, 22 states sued to stop him.

But not Alabama. And not Steve Marshall.

A federal court agreed to freeze the freeze, at first only in the states that sued. Later the federal courts extended that order to include all states, even Alabama. But not because of anything Marshall did.

And then there’s Texas vs. Becerra — or, the 504 thing.

Signed into law by Richard Nixon, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requires schools to accommodate children with special needs and disabilities. Many families have come to depend on 504 plans.

Now a lawsuit Marshall signed Alabama’s name to could blow the whole thing up, and parents who hadn’t considered their children’s education under threat are now fuming in Facebook groups.

After the Biden Administration attempted to add gender dysphoria to the list of things covered by 504, Texas sued. Sixteen other states joined the lawsuit, including Alabama.

Ostensibly, the complaint objects to Biden using the law to force states to accommodate trans students.

The thing is — no matter how you feel about trans issues — the lawsuit doesn’t stop there.

After saying Biden’s latest move was an overreach, the authors of the lawsuit then pivot to a more scorched earth approach — arguing Section 504 was never constitutional to begin with and that the courts should junk it. You can read it for yourself here, beginning on page 37.

Should you choose to read it, you might have already done more than Steve Marshall — because either he didn’t read it or he doesn’t care for federal protection of students. I’ll let you decide which is worse. But it’s also worth keeping in mind, those are not mutually exclusive, and it could be both.

I’ve said before that Steve Marshall is Alabama’s most dangerous politician, with an eye seemingly on federal office or a presidential appointment. Most of those arguments focused on Marshall’s recklessness on the criminal side of his office.

He’s awful on the civil side, too.

Term limits will soon end his tenure as Alabama’s Attorney General.

It’s up to Alabama voters, to make the same decision Donald Trump made at the federal level — that there’s no other place for him in state government, either.

Kyle Whitmire is the Washington watchdog columnist for AL.com and winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. You can follow him on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter (he doesn’t call it by that other name), Threads and Bluesky.

You can also subscribe to his weekly newsletter Alabamafication here.