This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene. The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news. Visit nashvillebanner.com for more information.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and seven Metro councilmembers filed an agreed order Thursday that renders a controversial law passed last year by the General Assembly unconstitutional. The act made it a felony — with the possibility of one to six years in prison — for local government officials to adopt, implement or vote for “sanctuary policies,” or acts that would limit Metro cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The order formalizes what Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti originally announced in September 2025.
“The Constitution provides absolute immunity for all legislative votes, whether at the federal, state, or local levels,” he told WPLN News at the time. “Regardless of these challenged sections, Tennessee law continues to make it illegal for cities and counties to enact sanctuary laws. Any sanctuary cities will lose state funding until they comply with the law.”
City lawyers weighing constitutional challenge against sanctuary city penalties
A week before the act went into effect on July 1, 2025, seven Metro councilmembers filed the suit in Davidson County Chancery Court, invoking the First Amendment, the 14th Amendment and principles of legislative immunity.
As part of the agreed order, Skrmetti has told the General Assembly that he “can advance no argument in support of the constitutionality” of the act. The General Assembly, in turn, has conceded defeat, stating it will not retain outside counsel at this point to defend the act’s constitutionality. In the order, the defendants acknowledged that the act unconstitutionally violates legislative immunity and agreed not to enforce the act against government officials.
The defendants also agreed to pay the plaintiffs approximately $61,000 in attorney fees and court costs.
"This is a huge victory for free speech and self-government,” District 6 Councilmember Clay Capp tells the Banner. “Never in the history of the United States has a state tried to make a rule that local officials can be thrown in jail for disagreeing with or voting against the preferences of the state government.
“The MAGA movement everywhere is trying to clamp down on free speech and dissent. It can't be a crime to disagree with the government, and so this is a really important milestone in the long struggle for American freedom. I'm grateful to the Attorney General's Office for recognizing that and for agreeing with us that the state can't criminalize dissent."
“When a law collapses under constitutional scrutiny, that’s not a technicality,” says Councilmember Brenda Gadd, another plaintiff, who represents District 24. “That’s a warning sign.
“The state attempted to criminalize local governance decisions simply because it disagreed with them. Local officials are elected to reflect the needs and values of our communities, not to operate under the threat of felony prosecution for doing our jobs. This outcome reaffirms a basic principle: Disagreement is not a crime, and public service is not subject to political intimidation.”
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
