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Tennessee Attacks First Amendment [1]

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Date: 2025-03-11

Trump’s Tennessee– It Now Plans to Criminalize Elected Officials Who Vote Against Dictator Donald’s Immigration Policies February 4, 2025

When Demagogue/Dictator Donald does something constitutionally suspect, extremist, or wacko, he, unfortunately, has far too many imitators at the state and local level. These Trump cultists will go even further in trying to tear down democracy’s guardrails. After Trump started signing his draconian and legally challengeable anti-immigration executive orders, “Deep Red” Tennessee did him “one better (NO, worse).” During the last week of January, 2025 the Volunteer State “volunteered” to join Donald’s, actually, lead Trump’s “get immigrants” army. Trifecta TN, with a super-GOP state House and Senate legislative majority and Republican Governor Bill Lee, who pushed this bill, made it a felony for local elected officials to vote for sanctuary cities. In sanctuary cities, authorities are forbidden to turn immigrants over to ICE or other agencies for deportation. First of all, TN doesn’t allow for sanctuary cities to begin with (Montesinos, Nashville newschannel5.com, WTVF). However, this bill goes beyond barring sanctuary cities. This bill, SB6002/HB6001, will criminalize local officials, including a county commission or city council members who vote for any policy considered an already banned “sanctuary” measure. Such support by local officials of sanctuary measures would be considered a TN Class E felony. Officials who vote the “wrong” way on these matters would then be punishable by up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine (tennessean.com, Leyva, D. & Brown, M., 1/31/25). This legislation would additionally fund a $5 million office within the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security that would allow GOP Governor Lee to pick an enforcement director and strongly encourage local law enforcement authorities to enter into a contract program with federal immigration authorities. Under this legislation, legal residents will no longer carry the same IDs as U.S. citizens. Instead, legal residents, such as DACA recipients or green card holders, will be assigned licenses with “visually distinctive” markers.What blatant discrimination! State Senator Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) stated that those new licenses mirrored those distributed to Jews in Nazi Germany. She also worried that restrictions around temporary licenses used for voting could result in voter suppression (nashvillebanner.com, Taylor, S.G., 1/30/25). According to the bill, legal residents who renew their license on or after Jan. 1, 2026, have to provide proof of citizenship to maintain their license, permit or photo ID (tennessean.com).

In the TN Senate, only GOPer, Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), broke with his party after he failed to pass an amendment in committee to remove the clause criminalizing elected officials. Gardenhire rebuked his “Team Red” colleagues. He declared, “If we’re telling an elected official you can’t cast a vote, that to me is not part of being a Republican (nashvillebanner.com, Taylor, S.G.,nashvillebanner.com, 1/30/25).”

Gov. Lee and his GOP followers in the TN legislature stated that these measures are necessary to help Donald enforce his immigration policies, despite the Trump administration not directing states to presently take up any new immigration policies. And frankly, immigration laws are federal matters, not state ones. This bill was passed even though staff attorneys warned that it was “constitutionally suspect” because of its unprecedented effort to curtail elected officials’ voting decisions (tennessean.com). Exactly. As TN Democratic State Senator Heidi Campbell aptly stated– by passing this bill, “duly elected officials will go to jail and have a criminal record if they do not support Trump’s policies (@Campell 4TN).” Campbell clearly recognizes that this bill would be criminalizing legislators who vote their consciences. IMHO, such action would create a “chilling effect,”suspect under constitutional law. The ability of legislators to speak, debate, and vote freely on many issues without fear, vital to democratically-elected legislative bodies, would disappear, according to Nashville Vice Chair Councilwoman Zulfat Suara. Suara rightly stated that if TN gets away with passing such a law, this action will constitute a “slippery slope.” Suara added that condemning anti-women’s rights bills could also make legislators and other people felons as well. Suara noted that “if you let them (state legislators) do it one time, they’ll continue to do it (Montesinos, newschannel5.com).”

After this bill passed, the ACLU of Tennessee announced it was preparing to sue the state over this pending law. Should this TN law stay on the books unchallenged, other “Red” States will, no doubt, decide to enact similar legislation. Legislators and other public figures must have the right to speak freely and criticize statutes that they do not agree with, something our Founding Fathers clearly understood and fought for.Trump’s followers don’t seem to understand this, but we must. The heart of our democracy depends upon it.

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