In response to calls from her opponent in the race for state attorney general to retract previous attack ads, Katherine Robertson recently released another ad attacking Jay Mitchell for a ruling he made on the Alabama Supreme Court.
Robertson and Mitchell have been locked in a heated back-and-forth in recent months leading up to the May 19 Republican primary, as the pair seek the party nomination.
What started as Mitchell blaming Robertson, chief counsel in the AG's Office, for contributing to the capital city's decline by her office's previous treatment of a former Montgomery police officer convicted of manslaughter in an on-duty shooting, has rapidly led to weeks-long pugilism.
SEE: Accusations continue to fly between Jay Mitchell and Katherine Robertson in heated AG race
What followed has been a game of dueling accusations and counteraccusations, with Mitchell most recently demanding that Robertson retract allegedly defamatory claims made in a TV ad, claiming Mitchell worked on behalf of a foreign Muslim regime.
SEE ALSO: 'Bald-faced lies': Jay Mitchell demands retraction from Katherine Robertson for 'defamatory' claims
Now, the pair are going back at one another, this time over accusations from Robertson's campaign that throw shade at Mitchell for a ruling he authored in 2022 while on the Alabama Supreme Court.
The ad accuses Mitchell of authoring a Supreme Court ruling that stripped qualified immunity protections for police officers, firefighters and other first responders.
"Jay Mitchell turned his back on Alabama's law enforcement…doing the dirty work of the ACLU and woke left," the ad states. "He made it easier to drag officers into court and be sued personally, just for doing their jobs. Jay Mitchell declared open season on law enforcement and firefighters."
The ruling in question comes in Ex Parte Pinkard. In the opinion authored by Mitchell, the court ruled that a deputy state fire marshal, Greg Pinkard, was not entitled to state-agent immunity in claims of malicious prosecution and defamation, after Pinkard was accused of fabricating a confession from a citizen.
Related: Firefighters Association slams Jay Mitchell for immunity ruling, endorses Katherine Robertson for AG
The ruling prompted a 2025 piece of legislation that changed the standard for prosecuting peace officers in the state, despite massive pushback from Democratic legislators.
Mitchell used the new ad as evidence that Robertson had indeed pulled her previous attack ad from the air.
"Alabamians just watched Katherine Robertson walk back one of the lies she has spent millions in dark money to spread," Mitchell said. "I'm glad to see the rule of law prevail against her campaign's shameless attempt to mislead voters."
Mitchell's campaign also accused the newest line of attack of being "false" and of being "another lie."
"Thanks to backing from the strongest law enforcement leaders in the state, support for Jay has spread like wildfire among law enforcement ranks," Mitchell's campaign stated. "Officers have watched Ms. Robertson's office railroad good cop after good cop—and they are outraged by this ad's brazen misrepresentation of her record. Now, more than ever, they are all in for Jay Mitchell."
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