I am fascinated by this game of chicken being played right now between Republican state legislators and Republican women. Of course it’s not just Republican women who want to see some actual gun control reforms passed at this week's special session, but the rest of us aren’t getting huge pieces in The Washington Post about our activism and our frustrations with state legislators lying to us. And the rest of us are accustomed to the blatant disrespect, lying, and utter lack of meaningful reforms the Tennessee General Assembly calls “legislating.” We all know nothing good is going to come out of this special session. Well, no good bills are going to come out of this special session. But a lot of Republican voters are going to learn some stuff about how our state works, and that may ultimately be good.
In the Washington Post piece, Covenant School mom Melissa Alexander talks about her political life before the March 27 killings: “She said she was raised to believe that talking about politics is impolite. Public policy was far from her world. She didn’t know citizens could enter the state capitol or request meetings with legislators.”
I think this is how most Tennesseans live. Unless and until something directly affects them, they just assume things are working OK and that the people in charge know what they’re doing and anyone who complains is, at the least, impolite and, at the most, some kind of unhinged leftist who ought to be utterly disregarded.
What this means in practice is that, as long as the Republican supermajority looks like they know what they’re doing when Republican voters pop their heads up to actually look around and see what’s happening, Republican voters will then put their heads back in the sand. Except that right now, Republican politicians don’t look like they know what they’re doing.
Did y’all take the time to actually read Gov. Bill Lee's proclamation calling for a special session? No, no, wait. First, did you read the governor's press release about the proclamation? I give his comms person, Casey Sellers, a lot of well-deserved shit, but this is a great press release. The governor’s positions sound well-considered and meaningful. I might disagree with them, but in the press release, Lee's agenda is clear and specific. He sounds like a leader. Now go look at the actual proclamation.
What is this garbage?
The press release:
TennCare Mental Health Coverage Waiver: Directs TennCare to seek a waiver from the federal government to allow federal matching funds for Medicaid to cover services for mental illness and substance use disorders at institutions of mental diseases
The proclamation:
Mental health resources, providers, commitments, or services
The press release:
Promoting Safe Storage: Eliminates taxes on firearm safes and safety devices, provides free gun locks, expands safe storage training in state-approved safety courses, and creates a public service announcement to promote safe storage
The proclamation:
Measures encouraging the safe storage of firearms, which do not include the creation of penalties for failing to safely store firearms
Want another one just for shits and giggles? Sure.
The press release:
Strengthening the Identification of Individuals Arrested for Felonies: Provides for the collection of DNA at the time of an arrest for all felonies
The proclamation:
<…>
Nothing! There’s nothing about DNA collection in the proclamation. Did the person who wrote the press release work off of some better draft of the proclamation? Because the distance between what the press release says the governor is asking the legislature for compared to what the governor is actually asking for is similar to the distance between Johnson City and Memphis. You can’t even see where the proclamation ended up from where the press release is.
Protesters rally for gun reform at the state Capitol, March 30, 2023
Now, now — I know some of you are about to tell me that the proclamation is more vague than the governor’s actual goals and hopes for the session because it is unconstitutional for the governor to dictate to the legislature what must go into the legislation they write. He can want everyone arrested for a felony to have their DNA tested, and he can suggest it, but he can’t require it, because that violates the separation of powers in the state constitution. And normally I would agree with you, but let’s go back to the proclamation (emphasis on the "musts" is mine):
Temporary mental health orders of protection, which must be initiated by law enforcement, must require a due process hearing, must require the respondent to undergo an assessment for suicidal or homicidal ideation, must require law enforcement to prove its case by clear and convincing evidence, must require that an order of protection be reevaluated at least every one-hundred eighty (180) days, and must not permit ex parte orders.
A governor can “shall” and maybe even “should,” but a governor can’t “must” at the legislature. Except here he is, doing just that. So, he could be this specific on all his goals for the special session.
In the two weeks since this clause full of “musts” was released to the public, it has become the focal point of some of the best gossip and most amusing speculation I can remember. Everyone I’ve talked to agrees that this is unconstitutional. But some folks take this as evidence that our governor is an idiot who doesn’t understand his constitutionally designated responsibilities and thinks he actually can give orders to the General Assembly. Others have told me that this is a poison pill specifically designed to tank the special session on a technicality. Sure, they would love to have a special session, but gosh darn it, the proclamation calling the session is unconstitutional, so it would be unconstitutional for them to hold the special session, and even if they did hold it, any legislation passed out of it would be unconstitutional fruit of the poisonous tree or something.
‘We have to ask ourselves, what kind of state do we want to raise our children in?’
I kind of wish the second scenario was true, but if there’s one thing you can say about Bill Lee, it’s that he’s not devious. When I brought this up to one person, they argued back that Bill Lee didn’t put this clause in the proclamation, some devious legislator did and Bill Lee is just the patsy. The patsy?! This is hilarious. I love it so much. You thought you knew about the threat of the “Deep State” — well, here in Tennessee, it’s the “Shallow State” trying to make nefarious moves, but clearly having no idea how to cover their tracks.
I’m trying to imagine being someone like Melissa Alexander or the other Covenant parents, and how terrible it must be to realize that the people who could help them aren’t going to and that they’re going to come up with literally the most vacuous reasons to fail these parents and kids, because they are utterly certain that most voters won’t care. And what over the past 20 years would make them think differently? If they can hold the line, they think people will eventually forget about all this gun-reform nonsense and move on. No Shallow State conspiracy necessary.
I also talked to a couple of lawyers about whether this clause could actually derail the whole special session. They said it shouldn’t. The governor’s only constitutional power in this scenario is to call a special session. Any wording he uses to call that session is basically extraneous. He can’t dictate what goes into a piece of legislation, and lawmakers don’t have to pay any attention to it if he tries. When I asked one of the lawyers what he made of all this, he said it’s confusing.
Which, honestly? Fair.
But what isn’t confusing is the truth: If parents like Melissa Alexander want change and want meaningful gun regulations, then they need to run for office and win. Because this batch of legislators is not going to do it.
