A Davidson County judge’s ruling that Gov. Bill Lee likely acted unlawfully when he ordered the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis now enters a new phase.
The governor’s office has said it will appeal the ruling — and that the Guard will remain active in the city while the case moves forward. Press Secretary Elizabeth Lane Johnson wrote in a statement Tuesday afternoon:
“Memphians know their city is facing a violent crime emergency that the state must address, and we’re confident higher courts will ultimately recognize this as well. The State will appeal, and the Tennessee National Guard will continue to operate as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force while the case is on appeal.”
“To date, the Memphis Safe Task Force has made 2,800 arrests, confiscated more than 450 illegal firearms, and located 114 missing children, and there’s no question these public-safety efforts must continue,” the statement concluded.
Johnson’s statement drew immediate push-back from local critics.
At a press conference held in the Shelby County Administration Building on Tuesday, the coalition of city, county and state leaders behind the lawsuit laid out their case: Gov. Lee violated the law when he agreed to deploy troops without a request from local leaders or authorization from the State Assembly.
“On Sept. 15th, Gov. Lee sat in the Oval Office with President Trump and what we saw was dumbfounding and disappointing,” said Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. “Our hope was that Gov. Lee would have said to those assembled, ‘Mr. President, Tennessee is a free state, and we have no authority to use the military against Tennesseans.’
“Unfortunately, that did not happen,” Harris continued. “Instead, Gov. Lee agreed to send troops to West Tennessee, even though he knew, or should have known, that that was patently illegal.”
Bolstered by Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal’s 37-page rebuke of the deployment, the plaintiffs framed the issue as bigger than just Shelby County, and that despite having the law on their side, they are still underdogs in this fight.
“The effect of this wrong-headed and illegal decision has been catastrophic to some of the most important laws and norms of our country,” Lee said. “This is not just about Memphis. This is about the Constitution. This is about whether we are going to follow the laws in the state of Tennessee.
“We’re up against the mightiest of adversaries: The White House and Donald Trump, Gov. Lee, and federal officials, some of whom are willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy their whimsy of the day,” he added. “But (Moskal’s ruling) is still an important first step.”
Harris framed the legal fight against other occupations in Oregon, Illinois and California, where courts have recently rebuked similar federalized “law-and-order” deployments. “We believe this is the first state action against the unlawful deployment of the military against Americans,” he said.
Memphis City Councilman JB Smiley Jr., also a plaintiff in the case, raged against the money being spent on the deployment that would be better spent on solving the root causes of crime that the Memphis Safe Task Force is supposed to fix.
“They’re not doing anything,” Smiley said. “We’re spending millions of dollars to afford the National Guard to simply walk on streets, laugh and play when we have some very pressing issues in this community.
“Instead of wasting dollars on people who don’t wanna be here, who are not impacting our issues in our community, there are some places those dollars can go,” he continued, suggesting infrastructure and education. “How about investing dollars into places that matter to people? We’re wasting time, we’re wasting resources for a political show.”
State Rep. G. A. Hardaway echoed the sentiment.
“You could put that same money to work preparing employees with hard-skill training or soft-skill training, or providing funding so entrepreneurs can launch their businesses,” said Hardaway, also a plaintiff. “That’s how you reduce crime — by creating real options, not by sending in troops.
“We need to go into the prevention and intervention business and prevent crime,” he added. “We can’t just keep spending money on an occupation that offers no real long-term solutions.”
Andy Sher of The Tennessee Journal reports that some GOP lawmakers are having informal conversations about granting Lee the authority he would need to maintain the deployment. Sher’s reporting attributes an anonymous GOP lawmaker. TSD has not independently confirmed the claim.
In fact, Hardaway says that quietly, his colleagues are stewing over Lee’s use of executive power and they don’t want to be involved in a political drama between Lee and Memphis.
“The legislators that I’ve talked to, they don’t want to be in Memphis’ mess,” Hardaway said. “They get tired of being pulled into Memphis and Shelby County issues that have nothing to do with them and really nothing to do with state affairs.”
Hardaway said his colleagues are thinking about what happens when the political pendulum swings the other way.
“A lot of Republicans probably won’t come out and say it, but yeah they’ve got concerns too,” Hardaway said of the precedent Gov. Lee is setting. “Every precedent that we accept now will apply when we have a Democratic-led government also. Either way, they know this is one big power grab.”
Smiley warned that the creep of authoritarianism is everyone’s fight.
“(Gov. Lee’s actions are) deeply troubling. Not just for those who take oaths to uphold the laws of this state,” Smiley said. “It’s deeply troubling for everyone who calls this community home. We have to stand up, we have to push back.
“Because if we allow the government to continue to abridge our rights, the question you should be asking yourself is: When are they coming for me?”
