New Tennessee Law Ruled Unconstitutional, Says Beacon Center Official

  A federal judge has halted enforcement of a new state law that state legislators passed earlier this year that forces online auctioneers to get a state license. This, according to Braden Boucek, vice president of legal affairs for the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee. Beacon is a free-market think tank. Boucek argued against the law in federal court. “We are confident that the law was unconstitutional and today’s ruling reinforced our conclusions. Tennesseans believe in freedom and shared economic opportunity. This law was a step in the wrong direction,” Boucek said. “The judge was correct to find it unconstitutional. As a state, we should be looking for ways to lower the barriers to employment, especially in rural counties. Instead, we passed a law that eradicated hundreds of good paying Tennessee jobs at the stroke of a pen.” In emailed statements to The Star, Aaron McKee from Purple Wave Auction said he was “really relieved that we are able to continue to conduct auctions without having to worry about breaking the law in Tennessee.” “I’m thankful that we live in a country with a Constitution that protects us in situations like this. It is difficult enough to do good business…

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The Tennessee Star Report Talks to Metro Council at Large Candidate, Adam Dread About Public Safety and the Low Early Voting Turnout for the Nashville Mayoral Race

During a discussion Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill and Leahy spoke to Metro Council at large candidate, Adam Dread about low early voter turnout and scooter safety and how it ties into the public’s concerns.

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Tennessee General Assembly’s Legal Counsel Considers Next Step Now that Judge Dismisses Appeal to End Refugee Resettlement Program

  The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected the State of Tennessee’s appeal in which the General Assembly sought to ban the federal government from forcing Tennessee to accept and fund a refugee resettlement program. A copy of the court’s ruling is available here. A federal judge in March 2018 dismissed Tennessee’s lawsuit against the federal government’s resettlement of refugees in the state on 10th amendment grounds. The Tennessee General Assembly in May 2018 authorized the Thomas More Law Center to file an appeal on its behalf, The Tennessee Star reported. The law center did not charge for the service. When Diane Black was running for the governor’s office last year, she announced her support for the appeal. The General Assembly first retained Thomas More in 2017 to file a federal lawsuit against the U.S. State Department, which oversees the refugee resettlement program, the law center said in a press release. In its decision Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit “side-stepped the substantive issues in a ruling Wednesday that held the General Assembly did not have ‘standing’ to challenge the federal program and dismissed the state’s case. Thus, the court never decided whether the federal refugee resettlement program violated the…

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