After a special session and regular legislative session focused on punitive immigration policies, concerns threaten two controversial policies.
Image: Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. Image Credit: Union University / Facebook
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by Sarah Grace Taylor, [The Nashville Banner, Creative Commons] –
A pair of contentious immigration policies promoted by state Republican lawmakers this year have hit snags since the legislature recessed in April.
The first, a sprawling immigration law passed during the January special session, went into effect on July 1, establishing a statewide immigration office among other enforcement measures.
One provision of the bill threatened local elected officials with a felony charge punishable by jail time if they voted in favor of so-called sanctuary city policies, even though the state already had banned the establishment of sanctuary cities.
The bill drew criticism from many groups, including scholars who found the threat of jailing elected officials for how they vote to be unconstitutional and a group of Nashville councilmembers who, along with the ACLU, sued the state over the provision.
Tennessee’s Republican Attorney General now agrees.
The Tennessee Journal first reported last week that the AG would not be defending the state on the provision, which he said was not legally defensible.
“In response to a recent lawsuit, our office has determined we cannot defend provisions of a new law that punish local officials for voting for sanctuary policies,” Attorney Jonathan Skrmetti told the TNJ, noting that the “Constitution provides absolute immunity for all legislative votes, whether at the federal, state or local levels.”
A spokesperson for the Attorney General did not respond to phone and email inquiries on Friday. Still, bill sponsor and House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) confirmed Friday that Skrmetti had determined the provision was not legally viable.
“And I trust the Attorney General’s office to evaluate every bill that we pass to determine how successful we can be within the court system,” Lamberth told the Banner. “And if he thinks that we’re not going to be successful on this one particular issue, then I trust his judgment on that and his team’s legal evaluation of that.”
Lamberth seemed unfazed by Skrmetti’s decision, noting a severability clause that allows the rest of the sweeping immigration law to remain intact even if the provision regarding local elected officials is struck down in court.
“And we’re still never going to permit sanctuary cities in this state,” Lamberth said.
Harkening back to the state’s successful U.S. Supreme Court case upholding another of his bills, which targeted transgender healthcare for minors, Lamberth said he is not deterred from “pushing the envelope” with legally questionable policies to promote a conservative agenda.
“We’re going to push it as far to the right as we can get. And sometimes there’s going to be some of these that we lose,” Lamberth said. “But there have also been ones we were told we would lose but didn’t.”
A spokesperson for the ACLU of Tennessee declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday, but as of publication, the suit is still listed as active in Davidson County Chancery Court.
Another of Lamberth’s immigration efforts this spring — a highly contentious bill allowing local education authorities to charge tuition to public school students without U.S. citizenship — would challenge the 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision.
After that, the education bill squeaked by in the State Senate, Lamberth tabled it in the House amid questions of whether the bill could jeopardize over $1 billion in federal education funding.
While he says he and the representatives of the federal government have had some back-and-forth conversations since the session ended, Lamberth has not gotten a straight answer on what’s at risk if he were to move the bill through when the legislature reconvenes next year.
“But there’s plenty of time between now and January,” Lamberth noted.
