Proposed Law Would Give Local Governments Authority To Review Presidential Executive Orders, Consider If The EO Is Outside Scope Of Federal Authority And Seek Remedy In Form Of Exemption.
Published February 12, 2021
After one of the most controversial and questionable elections in American history, Joe Biden’s first official act on day one in the administrative office was implementing an executive order that mandated masks be worn on all federal properties, by federal employees, and contractors.
This was followed by a more recent restriction put in place by the CDC which purports that it will be a federal offense for anyone over the age of 2 not to wear a mask on airplanes, trains, subways, buses, taxis, etc.
The CDC even went as far as specifying types of face coverings that won’t qualify to protect you from committing a federal crime: face shields, bandanas, and masks with exhalation valves.
Recently, Dr. Fauci recommended doubling up on face masks but Michael Osterholm, a former member of the Biden Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, suggested that while it may limit one’s ability to spread the virus to others, it may make the person wearing them more susceptible to transmission.
Last summer in response to initial federal mandates, Governor Bill Lee signed Executive Order 54 granting mayors of 89 counties in Tennessee the authority to issue local mask requirements in the event of a significant rise in COVID-19 cases, equally implying the power for local legislators to choose against such a mandate.
Earlier this month, an anecdotal analysis and data was completed by curious Tennesseeans comparing current Coronavirus statistics between counties with and without mask mandates in place.
Wilson, Rutherford, and Sumner County which each currently have a mandate in place were compared with Cheatham, Dickson, and Maury which have never implemented a face-covering mandate.
While some potentially influential variables were left out of this equation, the percentage of positive COVID cases were pretty average across the board with numbers varying as little as 5-10 cases across 100,000 people.
“It comes down to personal responsibility, you know, Williamson County’s had a mask mandate long or longer than Rutherford County, yet their spread rate is higher,” Mayor Ogles of Maury County pointed out.
Tennesseeans aim to protect that personal responsibility, as seen in the story we covered about 2nd Amendment Sanctuary Cities or Gov. Lee’s recent reference of the 10th Amendment.
On Thursday, Republican state representative Susan Lynn of Mount Juliet filed bill HB 1229, seeking to give the General Assembly the power to exempt the state from executive orders issued by the president.
The bill was also sponsored by Senator Frank S. Niceley of Strawberry Plains.
The proposed law would give local government operations committees authority to review executive orders issued by a president and then “consider if an executive order applies outside the scope of federal authority and whether the state shall seek remedy in the form of an exemption.”
Following this review, the Attorney General may review the order to determine the constitutionality of said order and determine if Tennessee should seek exemption or declare an order unconstitutional.
In addition to creating that potential protection from federal infringement, local leaders will not be able to issue executive orders restricting a person’s rights, if deemed unconstitutional by the Attorney General, whether the order relates to a pandemic, natural resource regulation, agricultural/land use regulation, the 2nd Amendment, or financial sector regulations.
We can expect to continue to see updates on bills such as these locally as well as new legislation proposed in light of federal decisions. Stay tuned.
15 Responses
Excellent! The Executive branch of the Federal Government is NOT supposed to pass legislation–that’s the job of Congress. Biden’s Executive orders are unconstitutional.
Agreed, we Tennessee citizens don’t need the leftist in DC telling us how to live. PASS THE BILL
MISSOURI PASSED THE SAPA ACT WHICH SEEMS VERY GOOD FROM WHAT I’VE READ.
Also the state of Florida and their GOVERNOR, have good ideals to stop the social media groups FACEBOOK,TWITTER,GOOGLE AN OTHERS from silencing
our 1 amendment VOICES AND rights
I stand by you and the bill to exempt Tennessee from Biden’s EO’s and applause your efforts to protect us Tennesseans and listen to our conservative voice! I love my state of Tennessee!
Good for TN. I am proud to be a Tennessean!!!
This makes me sonorous to be a Native son of Tennessee.❤️
Delighted to hear this. States need to take back their own authority.
Glad to see Tennessee stand for what is right. And to stand up against dictatorship
I am not a liberal Democrat or Republican but I am against our states petition for reversing executive orders of President Biden because of the rise in covid19 and most still in sumner county aren’t using masks and how our schools are not enforcing mandates on masks and therefore it raised our covid19 levels after the holidays and caused several people to get covid I am one of those families and which the schools didn’t inform parents of the rise and or before we caught it and after we caught it no one was informed it is very discouraging how our Emergency Rooms were full all over Tennessee because of this spread in the virus I myself go to a different county to go to the hospital and doctors many people come in contact with family and friends in different counties as well and therefore I believe it should be mandated for everyone to wear masks stay 6 ft social distance and all counties in the whole state should have virtual remote or distance learning no child should go to school those who have to go to work need to find a family member to watch their children or allow daycares to stay open just in case you have no family to watch them there should be some regulations for those daycares to get those children Covid tested whether or not they have symptoms and often but we should all work together to stop the spread of this virus they say more serious and dangerous strains of this virus are coming in and so we need to take charge now the new strains won’t be protected from the vaccines and going against the President is not going to do that working together in the time of this pandemic will ultimately help in stopping this virus in its tracks
When is Bided and Harris scheduled for their psychological evaluation?
Excellent idea. Thanks for sponsoring the bill.
Great news….states MUST stand up for their sovereign rights over federal mandates, including any coming soon mandates on taking the gene therapy, experimental, biological wuhan virus shot! Our state knows better than the federal government and our state legislature should pass legislation allowing the legislature to look at exemption when federal law overrides our states rights!
Federal overreach is out of control. States exercising and aggressively reasserting their 10th amendment rights is long overdue.
Good job, Tennessee legislators. Biden knows he can’t get his crap through Congress, so he wants to dictate. Glad to see Tennessee and Texas standing up to him!!!
That’s good but we need to pass these bills ASAP . This administration has no respect for the constitution.
Please pass these bills we need protection from this administrations unconditional action’s