Another Lawsuit Filed Over Metro Council Reduction

Nashville voters, Metro Council candidates and current Metro councilmembers are joining the legal challenge of the new state law that requires the Metro Council to be cut in half.

The plaintiffs in the new suit, filed Tuesday in Davidson County Chancery Court, request that their challenge be assigned to the same three-judge panel tasked with considering the Metro government’s earlier suit related to the legislation. The plaintiffs in the new suit are Zulfat Suara, Delishia Porterfield and Sandra Sepulveda, all Metro councilmembers currently seeking reelection; religious leaders Davie Tucker and Judy Cummings; Dave Goetz, a former leader of the Tennessee Department of Finance and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce; Alma Sanford, a community member; and Quin Segall, a candidate for Metro Council. All note that they are Nashville voters.

New Metro Council lawsuit

The lawsuit incorporates several of the same arguments from Metro’s earlier challenge: Under the Home Rule Amendment, the legislature is prohibited from making legislation targeted at a single local community; the state constitution requires local lawmakers serve four year terms; the timeline required by the new law is impossible to comply with.

Supporters of the legislation have argued against those points by noting that the law applies to all metropolitan governments in the state (there are just three, and the other two already have legislative bodies with 20 or fewer members) and that Metro can simply take an extra year to draw new lines if the process is too hurried.

Metro is already working on new maps, including an option with 15 district representatives and five at-large representatives and another with 17 district representatives and three at-large representatives.

Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly passed the bill following the Metro Council’s refusal to support a Nashville bid for the Republican National Convention in 2024. Gov. Bill Lee, also a Republican, signed the bill into law about an hour after it was signed, deploying unusual speed. Metro filed its lawsuit a few days later.

State response to Metro

In a response to the original Metro suit filed earlier this week, the state argues that the claims about four-year terms are not yet ripe, as the city is currently working on a redistricting plan that could potentially be in place in time for elections later this year. The state also argues that Metro does not have standing “because Metro Nashville was not elected to any legislative term” (unlike Suara, Sepulveda and Porterfield).

A hearing in the original case is scheduled for April 4. The law requires the Metro Planning Commission to establish new district boundaries four days later.

The new plaintiffs are represented by Scott Tift and David Garrison of Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison and John Spragens of Spragens Law.