The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County quietly appealed a recent Court of Appeals ruling upholding a state law requiring the 40-member Metro Nashville Council to be reduced to half its size to the Tennessee Supreme Court last week.
In March 2023, Metro filed a lawsuit in the Davidson County Chancery Court against Governor Bill Lee after he signed a bill capping the number of elected officials in the governing body of a Metropolitan government or municipality to 20.
The law was temporarily blocked by a Tennessee trial court, which initially found that Metro Nashville was likely to succeed in its constitutional challenge to subsection 1(b) of the law, which set deadlines for the council reduction.
The trial court, however, ruled after the August 2023 election that Metro’s challenge to subsection 1(b) of the law was moot but held that subsection 1(a), which reduces the council size, was still valid for review.
While the trial court unanimously agreed that subsection 1(a) didn’t violate the state Constitution’s Consolidation Clause, a majority found it unconstitutional under the Local Legislation Clause and the Exemption Clause, issuing a permanent injunction against it.
The state appealed the trial court’s decision to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which agreed with the trial court in a June 3 ruling that subsection 1(a) of the law is not moot, meaning the issue remains relevant and unresolved.
The Court of Appeals ultimately reversed the trial court’s injunction, concluding that the law does not violate the Tennessee Constitution.
Last week, Metro appealed the Court of Appeals ruling to the state’s highest court.
In a statement to The Tennessean, Metro Law Director Wally Dietz said he believes the Court of Appeals made a mistake in its June 3 ruling by, as he claimed, “rewriting the statute to reach its result and ignoring the practical realities addressed in the actual text of the statute.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Nashville City Hall” by Nicolas Henderson. CC BY 2.0.
Time to start rolling back the bloated leftist government in Nashville starting with reducing the size of the City Council. After all, TN created the law that in turn created Nashville. What TN created TN can dissolve.
Since Mandatory Term Limits on the Metro Council became law, the Citizens of Nashville lost their POWER in the Legislative body, no matter how many are in the Legislative Body.
With Mandatory Term Limits (MTL), the Council members, who might be a ” problem” for the Mayor’s office & the bureaucracy, can easily be manipulated by delay tactics & other tricks, especially when it comes to getting things done in their District. Prior to MTL, the Council members could call Department Heads directly to get problems fixed in their Districts. Now, Dept Heads are not allowed to speak directly to Council members. All calls must be funneled through the Mayor’s office. The result is Council members vote for what the Mayor wants or nothing gets done in the District. Even worse, the Mayor seeks out supporters of his to run for Council, & he gets his deep state to help get that person elected.
The people used to be able to keep a hard working loyal Council member in office. Now they don’t have that power. Until the people get educated on this, & eliminate Mandatory Term Limits, they don’t have a prayer.
It should be unconstitutional to fire an elected official under the MTL law. Only the Voters should have the power to hire & fire their representatives in the Metro Council.
VOTING IS TERM LIMITS.