Bail reform, a prohibition against statewide property tax and Marsy’s Law all approved easily.
Image Credit: Tennessee State Library & Archives, Canva.
***Note from The Tennessee Conservative – this article posted here for informational purposes only.
This story was originally published by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter.
Article by Mikeie Honda Reiland, The Nashville Banner republished under Creative Commons License –
Tennessee voters easily approved three constitutional amendments on Tuesday, as changes to bail policy, a ban on state property taxes, and a slate of victims’ rights measures became law.
With 65 percent of the vote counted. Amendment 1 (bail) had 66 percent of the vote, Amendment 2 (property taxes) received 66 percent of the vote and Amendment 3 won 75 percent of the vote.
Each arrived on the ballot via the state legislature. The bail referendum, largely driven by Republicans, passed during the 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions. Supporters argued that it would give judges the option — not the requirement — of denying bail to people charged with particularly violent offenses.
“There is hardly anything worse than someone being bailed out who is a violent criminal, with a violent past, only to find that they committed another violent crime and we have another victim,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said.
Opponents of the measure argued that it does more harm than good and wouldn’t actually make communities safer. Advocates pointed to studies showing that greater pretrial detention doesn’t necessarily reduce future crime. Lawyers also pointed out that judges do already have some discretion in deciding release conditions.
“It’s likely to pass because it has scary words in it, but it will do nothing to keep us safe and probably result in incarceration rates continuing to go up in a place where crime is going down,” Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City, a Memphis-based advocacy organization, told the Banner.
Amendments Two and Three largely received bipartisan support in the state legislature. However, many of the most progressive citizens and legislators, such as Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville), opposed both.
Gov. Bill Lee and Sexton led the group behind the state-level property tax ban.
“Letting Tennesseans keep their hard-earned money is part of our identity,” read the website for Yes on 2, the pro-amendment coalition. “Tennesseans should never fear that their homes, farms and businesses could be double-taxed, first by their local government, then again by their state government.”
Opponents of the state property tax ban argued that we can’t know what tools legislators may need in the event of a future economic crisis, as well as the motivations of the mostly Republican state legislature in terms of the needs and interests of the wealthy and the business class.
A version of Amendment Three, also known as “Marsy’s Law,” has passed in 14 other states, although two have since repealed it. In Tennessee, the bill passed the House unanimously, but opponents like State Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) expressed concern about an additional burden on an overtaxed court system and “how much it’s going to cost to do all this.” Opponents also pointed out that crime victims already do have rights laid out in the Tennessee Constitution.
One Response
Good.