March 31, 2013 — A tough-talking Attorney General Martha Coakley launched a legal assault against the feds yesterday, accusing them of trying to torpedo the centuries-old Bay State fishing industry, while a top environmental group insisted Coakley’s just trying to land cheap political points.
"She’s scaring people,” said Peter Shelley of the Conservation Law Foundation. “She’s making statements that have no foundation. It’s really sad that the AG would go off half-cocked on this issue. … Every politician likes to get their picture taken with fishermen on either side. Clearly this is political.”
Coakley’s office yesterday sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, alleging the agency’s tough new regulations are “a death penalty on the fishing industry of Massachusetts as we know it.”
Coakley’s suit touches off a state versus federal rights fight — something Massachusetts has initiated before, Coakley noted, referring to previous lawsuits about global warming and the Defense of Marriage Act.
Read the full story at the Boston Herald