Special Session Continues With More Censorship, More Tabled Bills

Where new rules limited spectators of this week’s special legislative session from holding protest signs, they got creative — and kicked out. Tuesday’s happenings provided a pretty clear idea of what legislation will come out of this session based on bills that passed a key Senate committee. The three bills that passed won’t change much, but many aren’t surprised. Folks were surprised, however, at how the House handled peacefully protesting spectators in its committees. 

On Monday, the House passed rules that limit debate on the House floor and prohibit protesters from holding signs and engaging in vaguely defined “disorderly conduct.” Protesters tested the rules by displaying messages on their arms, clothing and phones in the House session Tuesday morning. Later in the day, some were removed from a House committee for holding signs. After some audience members applauded when a bill that would have allowed more guns on school property was taken off notice, all spectators were asked to leave. 

A March shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville left three students and three staff members dead, and a lack of legislative action to address the tragedy is what prompted Gov. Bill Lee to call the special session. Among the crowd on Tuesday was Sarah Shoop Neumann, a Covenant School parent who was planning to testify. She discussed the emotional moment in an interview with WKRN. The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee announced Wednesday that the organization has filed a lawsuit on behalf of three people who were asked to leave. (Update: A Chancery Court judge Wednesday morning blocked the enforcement of Tennessee's House rule prohibiting signs.)

House Minority Leader Karen Camper (D-Memphis) said she was “appalled” by the decision to remove protesters. 

“For a committee chairperson to use their position to banish grieving Tennesseans from the committee room is beyond the pale,” Camper said in a statement. “This is embarrassing.”

The majority of Tuesday’s action took place in various committee meetings, though there were a handful of press conferences as well. Of the 55 bills on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda, only three passed. One would allow the distribution of free firearm locks and encourage other safe storage measures, and another shortens the window to three business days for which a court clerk must notify the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation of “the final disposition of criminal proceedings against a person after final disposition of such proceedings.” 

The third bill that passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee — and later the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee — requires the TBI to provide a report on human trafficking. Sponsored by Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) and Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland), the bill is also supported by the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, a Christian conservative organization that claims to be “fighting FOR children and against Marxism in Tennessee.” Johnson and Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District Rep. Andy Ogles attended a press conference discussing the bill — both were also guest speakers at the group’s monthly meeting in Franklin last week.

“Mental health needs to be the focus going forward,” Ogles told the Scene, adding that he’s “had conversations with a few [Covenant community members] but I have not met with them in a group. I’d be certainly willing to do that.”

Ogles said that in addition to focusing on mental health, he sees arming teachers and school staff as a reasonable step — something Covenant School parents have spoken out against during the special session.

“If you have armed teachers, [armed assailants will] get put down like the dog they are, and that’s what should happen,” Ogles told the Scene. 

While the House passed several bills in committee meetings, the Senate’s limited agenda will curtail consideration of much of the legislation. House Republicans have expressed frustration over this — Rep. Jeremy Faison brought an ostrich egg to symbolize the tension.

“Congratulations @tnsenategop on receiving the 2023 Ostrich Egg!” reads a post on X from the Tennessee House Republicans account. “It must be egghausting sending so many bills to Gen Sub. instead of doing the work people sent us here to do.”

On Wednesday, the Senate  started and immediately ended two committee meetings — Education and Health and Welfare — without discussing any bills, tabling all those that were up for discussion. Ibti Cheko, a Hume-Fogg student, missed school to testify at the education committee, and tells the Scene she’s surprised she wasn’t able to testify, but knows that “considering how this past week has gone, nothing's off limits.”

Down the hall in the Cordell Hull building, the House State Government Committee passed a bill that would prevent minors’ autopsy reports from being made public without parental consent. Families in the Covenant School community support the legislation, and the Senate will review it at a Senate State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday morning.