AG Ashley Moody Reveals Florida Could Join FSU Appeal Against North Carolina Judge

Moody has supported the public university in the past as she requested several documents from the ACC including the all-important Grant of Rights agreement.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) might be getting involved with the Atlantic Coast Conference's (ACC) lawsuit against Florida State University, which is being held in Mecklenburg, North Carolina – where the ACC operates.

FSU countersued in December, and a civil trial is currently taking place in Leon County at the same time as the ACC’s suit. The latest hearing occurred on Monday.

AG Moody is taking issue with Mecklenburg County Court Judge Louis A. Bledsoe’s 76-page court decision which states the public university waived its "sovereign immunity" as a member of the ACC. FSU has appealed this decision and AG Moody revealed that the State of Florida is “considering taking action in that appeal.”

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In a letter to the attorneys general of California, Georgia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia, Moody asks for their attention regarding the case which could affect these states as they have schools in the conference.

“I have attached to this letter an order that my office recently became aware of in the ACC Lawsuit … I would direct each of your attention to pages thirty-two through forty-two of that decision, where a trial court in the State of North Carolina concluded that Florida State University (‘FSU’) waived its sovereign immunity to be sued in the State of North Carolina by belonging to the Atlantic Coast Conference (the ‘ACC’).

“All of you have public universities that are members of the ACC. You each have other higher education institutions that belong to similar unincorporated sports associations. Indeed, there are countless similar organizations at every level of our states and local governments to which state and local officers are involved. It is because of the potential breadth and impact of the trial court’s claimed waiver of sovereign immunity that I write to each of you,” said Moody in the letter.

Furthermore, Moody mentioned the notion that although it is FSU that is immediately affected by the decision made by Judge Bledsoe, other states and their public institutions could be affected in the future.

“If the history of college football realignment has taught us anything at this point, it is that there will be some future realignment down the road,” wrote Moody.

This is a developing story.

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