Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird wrote in an op-ed for The Daily Wire that she is suing California for leading the charge in the lawsuit against the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.

“California is once again trying to be the country’s regulator. And once again California is defying common sense to raise costs around the country,” Brenna wrote. “That makes this a dispute between states, and the Constitution says those can only be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

It’s unclear if Brenna has filed any paperwork for her proposed lawsuit or if there’s any legal authority that the state could invoke. However, the threat of taking California to the Supreme Court may be enough to bring the state’s AG Rob Bonta back to the bargaining table.

Brenna argues that “any Iowa family” would tell you the cost of streaming is too high and that there are “fewer quality shows” to choose from. She says these are symptoms of one company getting “too far in front,” and the competitors being “too small to catch up.”

A merger between Paramount and Warner Bros., she writes, would remedy this.

“Netflix dominates the market for streaming,” Brenna says. “Paramount+ and HBO Max together are smaller than Netflix, smaller than Disney, and smaller than Amazon. The merger could create a company to compete: an estimated $6 billion in savings to reinvest, and a public commitment to release at least 30 movies in theaters every year. More movies mean more entertainment — and more competition means lower prices.”

She called Paramount’s promise to release 30 theatrical films a year a “big deal,” adding, “That means more real choice for the family deciding which subscription to keep and which to cancel; more entertainment for small-town theaters to put on the marquee; and even more work for the crews who build sets and run cameras. Iowans do not need an economist to explain that.”

More to come…