On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Leahy and special guest Steve Glover, formerly of Nashville Metro Council who’s currently a candidate for the upcoming election, talked about the “legal authority” of Mayor Briley in relation to his recent call for executive action against ICE.
Nearing the end of the show, Glover said he would be more than happy to debate Briley on the legalities of his upcoming actions. Leahy enthusiastically offered a platform at the Tennessee Star Report for one full hour which would allow Briley and Glover and open forum to discuss the issue.
Leahy: The person in front of us right now whose story we’re hearing is Steve Glover. And so Steve, you were explaining to us the legal authority. And you’re understanding as a former member of the Metro Council. Former as of September first. Just a couple of days ago at midnight. Waiting for this runoff election a week from Thursday.
Glover: Right.
Leahy: So, what is the legal authority of an executive order? And the reason we want to know this is because Mayor David Briley, desperate David is going to make an announcement about an executive order that he’s going to make about basically telling, we suspect, local law enforcement not to cooperate in any form or fashion with the legal lawful actions of ICE. The federal part of the Department of Homeland Security in detaining illegal aliens who have broken the law. So, executive orders. How many executive orders have been passed in your tenure there? Give me an example of an executive order and what are the legal parameters are of it.
Glover: OK. So, I”m going to do this the best I can. Megan Barry signed an executive order that all employees, everybody would follow the charter and as far as the ethics are concerned. Then we know what happened there. So, she got caught (Scoffs) and that’s when they filed an ethics complaint against her own executive order.
Leahy: That particular executive order was simply everyone who works for the city must follow the law on ethics.
Glover: Right. Right.
Leahy: OK. To me, that’s just…
Glover: Then they came back and said wait a minute. It was just an executive order. It didn’t really mean this or that. Which is what they do all the time downtown.
Leahy: Right.
Glover: What is the legal authority of the executive order? The legal authority is like a CEO of a company issuing a memo saying, “Employees will do this and this and this.” Here’s the problem with the executive order. If it’s in conflict with the state constitution or the United States constitution, then by law, again, I’m not an attorney, it’s an illegal move. And therefore that’s where representative Reedy has…
Leahy: Jay Reedy.
Glover: Has sent us a letter and said, “Hey look. If you keep doing this, we’re going to withhold funds.”
Leahy: Let’s go back to that letter from Representative Jay Reedy.
Glover: OK.
Leahy: When did he send the letter and what did it say?
Glover: I want to say it came out either Thursday or Friday of last week
Leahy: OK.
Glover: And it circulated throughout the weekend. Whenever we have these holiday weekends it’s a little challenging to figure out exactly when it came out.
Leahy: OK. We’re obviously going to do a story on this letter and get Jay Reedy on to tell us about this letter. Have you seen this letter?
Glover: I have.
Leahy: OK. What does the letter say?
Glover: It is very explicit on the House bill that passed and now the charter, the clause in the law that says that no city in Nashville. No municipality may harbor or be a sanctuary city. And if I’m not mistaken I believe the Governor signed this. It’s full-on. This is the way it is.
Leahy: It’s the law. So Jay Reedy sent a letter to the Mayor and all city council members.
Glover: To the city as a whole.
Leahy: To the city as a whole. OK. And it said, “Hey, by the way. There’s a state law that says you can’t be a sanctuary city in any regard and please remember that.”
Glover: Yes. And they do it rather frequently to us. And if you remember last month we got a member from the controller saying, “Hey, your finances look bad. You’re not doing things correctly.”
Leahy: Oh, there’s a shock. (Laughter)
Glover: My point is the executive order has about as much weight as nothing. Now, the Mayor and I can have a long conversation. We can debate it right here if he wants to about what’s the legality of it and what is the authority.
Leahy: So here’s what I’m going to do. I like that idea Steve. And so what I’m going to do is I’m going to right now invite Mayor Briley to come in. Are you available Thursday?
Glover: I’ll come in whenever. I would love to talk to him about this one.
Leahy: We’re going to invite Mayor David Briley to come on the show. We’re inviting him right now to come on the show Thursday. We’re inviting him to come on the show and debate with Steve Glover the legality of the executive order on immigration that he’s about to issue this afternoon. Mayor Briley! Come on man! Man up! (Leahy laughs) Man up!
Glover: Bring it on.
Leahy: We want to hear your side of it. We think it’s likely to be probably not legal. But hey, if you want to make the case you have a full hour to debate that with Metro Council at large member Steve Glover.
Glover: Have to add the word former. (Giggles)
Leahy: Former. Former Metro Council member.
Glover: After September 12th then we get back in for the at large piece.
Leahy: Until two days ago former Metro Council member Steve Glover. Candidate for Metro Council at large. I’m going to make a prediction. (Laughs) My prediction Steve is that Mayor David Briley will not accept this invitation to come here in studio and debate his executive order. Which I suspect will be illegal.
Glover: Well, you know, again, I’m not a lawyer nor am I a judge. But nothing would thrill me more than to have this conversation because…
Leahy: This is the conversation to have, isn’t it?
Glover: Right now.
Leahy: Why can’t we have that conversation before the election?
Glover: And one of the reasons that I am so headstrong on working as hard as I’m working right now. My teams working in order to get elected is because of these kinds of things. If our side just sits on the sideline all the time, this kind of stuff passes and we get in trouble. And when we get in trouble then there are repercussions to that trouble. And so when you speak to the state representative who sent the letter…
Leahy: Jay Reedy.
Glover: Jay Reedy.
Leahy: Goodman. Good friend.
Glover: When you speak to him. They’re really should be no need for that letter to be issued. But it has to be issued because Nashville on a regular basis flaunts at the state and the United States government on the constitution about what we can do and that leave us alone. We’re our own little place. But we’re not. We don’t have our own island inside of Tennessee.
Leahy: Well, they think they do. But they don’t’ legally. And of course, this is the problem with the country. It’s come to Nashville right now. You see this in Detroit. You see this in Los Angeles. You see this in all so many cities that think they are sovereign states. Which is of course…
Glover: Incorrect.
Leahy: Incorrect and anti-constitutional. Now, let’s talk a little bit about Mayor Briley and executives orders. Has he passed any other executive orders of know?
Glover: He’s done some things. But I can’t recall what they were.
Leahy: They were not relevant to much of anything right?
Glover: There’s not much. This is going to sound really tacky but there’s not much he’s done that is relevant.
Leahy: Again, descriptive.
Glover: First of all, he gives us a budget which I felt was unconstitutional.
Leahy: I would say deceptive because it included that 30 million dollars in assigned parking rights which he said he was not going to do. So, I thought it was deceptive.
Glover: Deceptive. Unconstitutional. All I know is we got a letter from the state controller saying you’re doing this stuff wrong.
Listen to the full hour:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
I’m voting for Briley if I get my felony conviction expunged in time.
Briley, you’re FIRED!
Will the debate be held at the Nashville jail? That’s the only place that Briley should be right now!