Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout

This article has been edited by Raw Story.

Tennessee’s Ethics Commission could take action against Memphis area residents after dismissing their sworn complaint against Sen. Brent Taylor for critical remarks he made against participants of a “No Kings” rally there.

Commission members and state ethics director Bill Young raised questions this week about whether the residents tried to “weaponize” the process to go after Taylor, a Shelby County Republican who blasted people who rallied against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in June, calling them “idiots” and warning the police would arrest them for an illegal protest. Taylor spoke on a Memphis radio station and then posted comments on the X, formerly Twitter, calling the protesters “purple-haired Jihadis.”

The Left’s violence masquerading as free speech is a stain on our republic, and it’s escalating at a terrifying pace. From assassination attempts on President Trump—twice in two months—to torching cars at Tesla dealerships during Tesla Takedowns. Members of “Progressive” groups… pic.twitter.com/cQcTUEjcNb
— Senator Brent Taylor (@SenBrentTaylor) June 14, 2025

Five people who filed identical complaints against him said he used his official position “to spread false, inflammatory and dangerous misinformation about a peaceful protest event,” endangering constituents and inciting harassment.

Young told the commission it didn’t have jurisdiction to cite Taylor, in part, because he didn’t benefit financially from the criticism. The executive director also told the commission it could hold a hearing to determine whether civil penalties should be levied against the complainants for filing a “frivolous” complaint, potentially leading to a $10,000 civil penalty.

Commission members agreed it’s “not unethical” for Taylor to state his opinion and that voters should decide whether he remains in office. Ultimately, they decided to defer action until their next meeting when two members who were absent this week could attend.

Taylor’s attorney, Allan Wade, said in a letter to the commissioner the complaints were “merely personal grievances about Brent Taylor’s dislike of complainants and their political views, which is not a proper subject of an ethics complaint under the Ethics Act.”

That could be true, but the ultimate question is whether the Ethics Commission is more concerned with making an example of people who, wrong or right, see it as a last resort for justice or giving politicians the freedom to bad-mouth the public.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents riled up folks when they conducted a dragnet in a South Nashville neighborhood a month ago and detained nearly 200 people.

But city streets aren’t the only place where federal agents are picking up immigrants for deportation. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday it has released 283 inmates to ICE custody in 2025, notably higher than last year’s number.

Oddly enough, the sheriff’s office doesn’t have information on whether those inmates have legal documentation to be in the country. It sends fingerprints collected in the booking process to national databases, including those ICE is able to access, according to spokesman Jon Adams.

ICE contacts the sheriff’s office to request a detainer, then picks up the inmate, leaving the local agency with nothing but a number of people released to federal custody.

Based on the 283 inmates released by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Metro Nashville appears to be cooperating with the federal agency on deportation, despite claims to the contrary by Republican lawmakers.

The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t participated in the 287(g) screening program for immigrant inmates since 2012 when Sheriff Daron Hall said it was so successful it was no longer needed. For the five years the department used the program, it processed more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants for removal from the country, according to a WPLN report.

But based on the jail pickups, Metro Nashville appears to be cooperating with the feds, even though Republican lawmakers are hammering at Democratic Mayor Freddie O’Connell after he raised concerns about the Nashville sweep. Metro inadvertently posted the names of three ICE agents, then removed them, and O’Connell updated a years-old executive order requiring personnel to notify the mayor’s office if they encounter any federal agents, including those from ICE. Those moves spurred Republican legislation to punish governments that ID ICE agents, and GOP leaders have called on O’Connell to rescind the notification order.

Since opting out of the program, the sheriff’s office no longer serves as an extension of the federal ICE program. But based on the number of jail deportations, they have quite a few encounters with the federal agents.

Republican leaders have said repeatedly over the last few months that new laws are needed to remove undocumented criminals who pose a public safety threat.

Those have been under way, though, for nearly two decades.

Former President Barack Obama removed more than 4 million people, earning him the moniker “deporter in chief.” Former President Joe Biden deported 271,000 immigrants in 2024, according to a BBC report. Over the first four months of this year, the Trump administration removed about 200,000 people from the country.

Based on those numbers, undocumented immigration is nothing new, and neither are deportations. Some just cause more chaos than others.

Trying to get off the radar

Tennessee State University broke ground Thursday on two academic buildings for the College of Agriculture, but the historically Black college will remain under a state microscope for a good minute.

As part of an agreement signed last week with state leaders, the university must meet several financial requirements in order to shift more than $90 million from a 2022 capital grant to campus operations over the next three years.

In addition to making a quarterly report to the Tennessee Board of Regents, comptroller and commissioner of Finance and Administration, TSU must meet deficit reduction goals and cut yearly expenses, fix state audit findings, come up with a space use and real property plan, and set find an enrollment figure it can handle without going broke.

State officials reached the agreement with TSU and interim President Dwayne Tucker after forcing out former President Glenda Glover and replacing the board of trustees in 2024.

TSU and Glover caught the ire of Republican senators when the university sought last-second approval to lease apartments for student housing when it started an aggressive scholarship program after the COVID pandemic. The university used a federal grant to fund the scholarships, then ran out of money.

In the last year, state leaders have been micromanaging the university’s money with Tucker, who is working without pay, to put TSU on stronger financial footing.

The estimated $90 million buildings for the Food and Animal Sciences and Environmental Sciences programs will support the university’s academic, research and agriculture extension missions.

“This project underscores the state’s continued confidence in our university and the strength of our land-grant mission,” Tucker said in a statement.

Republican senators have said consistently they want TSU to succeed, yet they didn’t show any confidence in the administration until recent months. State officials allowed TSU to take an advance last fall on the $250 million in capital funding, just to make payroll and stay afloat.

A state study found TSU had been shorted by as much as $500 million over many decades, while a federal report said the university was shorted by more than $2 billion, a figure Republicans are rejecting. Either way, TSU has battled with finances for years, struggling to balance the books and resolve audit findings, even if state investigations found no wrongdoing.

State Comptroller Jason Mumpower, one of Glover’s biggest critics, said he has confidence in Tucker. After the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding, Mumpower said he told the interim president that “the hard work starts now.”

The question is whether they can repair decades of underfunding, bad management and, some might say, neglect on the part of a lot of people in high positions.

Cepicky’s pick

Republican state Rep. Scott Cepicky said on a podcast this week he’s picking House Speaker Cameron Sexton to win the 7th Congressional District seat expected to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Mark Green.

“The wild card here is Sexton,” Cepicky said on “3 Dudes with a View,” a Columbia production. He added that his “gut feeling” is Sexton will win if he gets in.

Sexton’s office has consistently declined comment, but he is set to make a big announcement in August.

For the second time, Green announced his decision to leave the post, once Congress votes on the president’s budget plan.

Cepicky declined to comment Thursday to the Lookout on whether Sexton told him he will run for the post.

The prediction is tempered somewhat because Cepicky also said Sen. Bill Powers could be a strong candidate, even though Powers announced last week he won’t run.

While Sexton’s potential candidacy is bandied about, former Tennessee General Services Commission Matt Van Epps announced this week that Nashville car dealership magnate Lee Beaman and his wife, Julie, will be finance co-chairs for his 7th District campaign.

Beaman also served as treasurer of U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ first campaign when he was late filing his Federal Election Commission report and reported raising much less money than he initially claimed. The FBI was investigating him, but Trump squashed that probe when Ogles came to his defense.

Beaman also was the sole donor of $50,000 to Volunteers for Freedom PAC, which put $24,000 into an ad buy backing Ogles, raising questions about illegal coordination between the campaign and PAC.

AI argument

State Sen. Bo Watson joined Republican lawmakers from across the country Thursday in urging Congress not to approve a 10-year moratorium on artificial intelligence laws as part of the president’s budget bill.

Watson, chair of the Senate finance committee, adamantly opposes a ban on states and local governments regulating artificial intelligence systems, models and decision systems for children’s online safety, consumer protections, transparency and accountability measures and “generative AI harms,” which could build up societal biases in data and potentially allow sensitive personal data to be stolen. (This is making my brain hurt.)

Watson invoked Tennessee’s new law preventing “deep fakes” and the ELVIS Act, which protects artists from infringement on their voices and images, during a Thursday webinar on the subject with lawmakers nationwide who oppose the federal ban. The moratorium would withhold broadband funding in exchange for doing nothing.

“For an administration who has really been focused on returning authority back to the states, this is one aspect of this piece of legislation that I’m quite disappointed in,” said Watson, a member of the state’s council overseeing AI policy.

Watson, a Hixson Republican, added that Congress is so slow to act that by the time it deals with problems stemming from AI, the states will be left to “wrestle” with the consequences.

“That’s why it’s critically important that this part of the bill be removed,” Watson said, and states be allowed to work with the feds on AI laws.

It might not be the only rough part of the federal legislation.

Congress also is considering cutting Medicaid spending that could cause Tennessee’s TennCare program to lose $16 billion in federal funding, according to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, brother of former Tennessee state Rep. Rick Tillis.

The pending and potential budget buster for Tennessee is accompanied by a massive uptick in national spending for ICE and border patrol and an overall increase that even former DOGE director Elon Musk opposes.

This proposed expansion of federal control over AI coincides with U.S. deportation efforts nationwide despite opposition in many states, renewing the age-old states’ rights argument that was supposedly put to rest 160 years ago. Some folks want the states to prevail only when it’s politically expedient, presenting a bit of a contradiction.

“Got in a little hometown jam / So they put a rifle in my hand / Sent me off to a foreign land / To go and kill the yellow man.” *

*”Born in the USA,” Bruce Springsteen

The prosecution’s chief witness in Tennessee’s political corruption case testified Monday that the identities of former House Speaker Glen Casada and his ex-chief of staff had to be “masked” because of their connection to a racist and sexist texting scandal.

On the trial’s fifth day, former state Rep. Robin Smith of Hixson explained how she, Casada and Cade Cothren met at a Nashville bar in October 2019 to plan the formation of Phoenix Solutions, a shadowy company that printed and sent out constituent mailers for lawmakers without their knowledge of who ran it.

Smith, who pleaded guilty to honest services fraud in 2022 and is cooperating with federal prosecutors in the kickback case against Casada and Cothren, described the state’s postage and printing program for lawmakers as “low-hanging fruit” because it would be an instant way to make money. House members receive $3,000 in state funds to send out surveys and informational mailers, both of which must receive approval from the Speaker’s office and the director of legislative administration.

Cothren formed Phoenix Solutions in early November 2019 through the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office and created a registered agent, a method that would enable them to “mask identities” of Casada and Cothren, just months after they resigned their posts because of the texting scandal that broke open in the spring of 2019.

Smith explained that politicians are “acutely aware and sensitive” about their associates and want to maintain the “halo effect.” Thus, they had to keep Casada’s and Cothren’s connections to Phoenix Solutions secret to do business with Tennessee lawmakers.

“It was understood that I would be the least suspicious of the three to approach lawmakers,” Smith said of the business arrangement. “I was the only one that didn’t have a radioactive halo around me.”

She added that Casada “did not understand the toxicity of the scandal.”

Smith said the arrangement called for her and Casada to receive a portion of the money lawmakers spent with Phoenix Solutions based on the number of clients they brought to the company. Ultimately, lawmakers spent about $52,000 with the company from the postage and printing accounts.

A former chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, Smith played a role in Republicans taking the majority from Democrats and then winning a supermajority. Smith described herself as a “den mother” and said she came up with the name “Phoenix” from reading the Bible and Greek mythology and felt Casada and Cothren had gone through “public scrutiny” and, similarly to the mythical bird, would be rising “from the ashes.”

Smith testified after Nick Crawford, a lobbyist with Capitol & 5th Public Strategies who initially handled work done by Phoenix Solutions and its bogus agent, Matthew Phoenix, while he worked as a House Republican Caucus adviser for Chairman Jeremy Faison.

Crawford, the first person to receive a phony W-9 form signed by Matthew Phoenix, said he thought it might have been signed by a computer. He also said he was never able to speak with Matthew Phoenix by telephone or text message, only by email.

Smith pleads guilty to wire fraud connected to shadowy campaign vendor

Smith approached Crawford about directing business to Phoenix Solutions, and he recommended the company to Republican Rep. Jay Reedy of Erin and Republican Rep. Tim Rudd of Murfreesboro because he trusted Smith, who had been a key player in state politics for several years, Crawford said.

In an email, Smith said to Crawford and Cothren, “be introduced.”

Crawford, who was aware of the sexist and racist texting scandal, testified he wouldn’t have recommended Phoenix Solutions if he had known who was running it.

Smith was running a political consulting firm called River’s Edge Alliance when she won election to the House in 2018. After Casada left the speakership following a no-confidence vote by the Republican Caucus, he started Right Way Consulting.

Casada continued to serve in the House, and Smith had been named a committee chairman when the FBI raided them in January 2021. She resigned from the chairmanship, then decided to cooperate with federal authorities instead of misleading them.

Smith told the jury she repented to her pastor and family, then talked to federal agents, and added her goal is to “tell the truth” in hopes of receiving a “favorable sentence.”

Holly McCall contributed to this story.

Attorneys for a former House speaker and legislative staffer indicted in a federal corruption case say in a new court filing that House Speaker Cameron Sexton or someone on his staff likely wore a wire to provide investigators with information five years ago.

Ex-Speaker Glen Casada and his chief of staff, Cade Cothren, claim federal prosecutors are refusing to disclose the identity of people who secretly gathered information against them in a fraud investigation, thus keeping the pair from putting them on the stand as witnesses in a trial set for April 22. Attorneys for Casada and Cothren want the court to compel federal prosecutors to identify their informants.

Sexton became House speaker after Casada resigned from the post and is cooperating with federal prosecutors in the case. The filing says it is unlikely that former Legislative Administration director Connie Ridley wore a wire as part of the investigation and recorded House Republican Caucus Campaign Committee conversations, as a person identified as “CHS1” allegedly did.

“The more plausible explanation is that CHS1 is the Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton, or someone working in the Speaker’s office,” the filing says.

The joint filing in U.S. District Court by Casada and Cothren says federal prosecutors are hiding the identity of three informants. It says the government could argue that references to one of the most important figures in the investigation could be confirmed in emails. But it says references to the person in documents “suggest possible errors and plausibly point to more than one individual, thereby enhancing the need for disclosure and clarification.”

Former House Speaker Glen Casada, photographed in 2022. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Cothren and Casada are accused of running a kickback scheme to help the former chief of staff after he was fired in 2019 for his part in racist and sexist text messages. A few months later, Casada resigned after a no-confidence vote by the House Republican Caucus.

According to federal documents, Cothren secretly ran a business called Phoenix Solutions so his identity wouldn’t be known, and Casada and Smith directed business to him from Republican House members. Cothren was paid nearly $52,000 to do constituent mailers for House members.

The House Republican Caucus also hired Phoenix Solutions and paid roughly $140,000 for caucus work.

The filing by Casada’s and Cothren’s attorneys says the investigation was “spawned and heavily aided” by at least three confidential sources identified as CHS who “surreptitiously” recorded conversations about the defendants and Smith, disclosed information about House meetings, turned over information about members’ postage and printing accounts and gave “insider information” about new postage and printing guidelines issued by the speaker around June 2020.

Despite the role they played, government prosecutors have refused to disclose their identities because they don’t plan to call them to testify.

Sexton has confirmed Cothren’s attorney subpoenaed him to testify in the case, though he again confirmed he is cooperating with federal prosecutors. He was among 19 lawmakers who received subpoenas early in the 2025 legislative session.

Casada et al 2-25-25

(This story has been updated since original publication.)

Tennessee Republicans are bucking for a Supreme Court showdown to end the constitutional requirement for public schools to teach every child regardless of their immigration status.

But at least one member of the majority party says lawmakers are operating out of “fear” that they’ll run into primary opposition next year if they don’t vote for a bill allowing school districts to opt out of serving immigrant children without permanent legal status.

“There’s an old saying on Wall Street: When the ducks are quacking, you feed ’em,” said Sen. Todd Gardenhire, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And the hysteria of anti-Hispanics is running rampant right now, and the ducks are quacking, so this bill is designed to satisfy the ducks and feed ’em what they want to eat.”

House Bill 793, which is sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland and Sen. Bo Watson of Hixson, is being sold as a method to challenge Plyler v. Doe, a precedent-setting 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case. Lamberth and Watson also say passing it is important to keep local school boards from taking on the burden of educating immigrant students.

Watson said the bill is designed to build on action taken during the legislature’s recent special session at the request of President Donald Trump.

Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican, said his bill is designed to build on action taken to tighten immigration measures during a recent special legislative session. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Lawmakers approved $5.5 million two weeks ago to set up a bureau within the Department of Safety and Homeland Security that would work with federal and local law enforcement on deportation of immigrants without permanent legal status. Nearly all of the money will go toward grants to train local law enforcement agencies on handling immigrants without legal status.

Lamberth defended the bill by saying the nation has been inundated with immigrants compared with the early 1980s when the Supreme Court case was decided.

“Those illegal immigrants are not going to be able to benefit from the services reserved for legal immigrants or U.S. citizens, period,” he said. “If they don’t like that, they can go to some state that’s a sanctuary state.”

House Speaker Cameron Sexton supports the bill, saying local school districts are having trouble handling a large number of immigrant students who either speak English as a second language or leave school during different times of the year based on their parents’ jobs.

“It’s detrimental to everything we’re trying to achieve in the school system,” Sexton said.

In addition to creating the immigration enforcement bureau, which will be able to operate confidentially, lawmakers excluded students without permanent legal status from the governor’s private-school voucher bill during the special session.

The move drew opposition from first-term Rep. Gabby Salinas of Memphis, who migrated to America from Bolivia when she was 7. She said the bill is unconstitutional and goes against the “international standard” for educating all children, putting Tennessee on par with countries that engage in child labor and child abuse.

“For us to be leaders at the global stage and to be engaging in such practices, it’s cruel, it’s inhumane, and it’s heartless,” Salinas said.

Even though the bill targets children without permanent legal status, Salinas said it could affect other children who are friends, classmates and neighbors. She predicted a “catastrophic” loss of revenue if the measure passes and eventually becomes law.

“If the human cost is not enough, look at the numbers and financial cost,” she said, noting immigrants contribute heavily to the state and national economy.

The American Immigration Council reported that 383,800 immigrant residents in Tennessee had more than $11 billion in spending power in 2022 and paid $3.2 billion in taxes. It didn’t delineate immigrants without permanent legal status.

The Migration Policy Institute estimated 128,000 immigrants without legal status live in Tennessee, and 10,000 of those are enrolled in public schools, according to a House Republican Caucus release.

“For us to be leaders at the global stage and to be engaging in such practices, it’s cruel, it’s inhumane, and it’s heartless,” said Rep. Gabby Salinas, a Memphis Democrat.

Lamberth said communities across the state shouldn’t be forced to pay for the federal government’s failure to secure the country’s borders.

“Our obligation is to ensure a high-quality education for legal residents first,” Lamberth said.

Despite the claims that immigrant children put a burden on local school districts, J.C. Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, said he doesn’t hear complaints from teachers.

The main problem, he said, is that immigrant children are required to be tested as soon as they transfer into a school district.

“The major issue was technology,” Bowman said. He added that the state has a shortage of teachers for English as a second language.

House Bill 793 has not been scheduled to be heard in a House or Senate committee.

“The Tennessee Constitution is clear – the legislature has oversight of cities and counties,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said in a statement. “If local governments refuse to follow state law or circumvent state laws, they should not expect to benefit from state resources. This legislation makes it clear that political stunts will not be tolerated at the expense of law-abiding Tennesseans.”

Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally promised to punish Memphis last August by cutting its share of sales tax revenue – more than $75 million – if the city put referendums on the November ballot restricting weapons. Memphis refused to back down, and voters subsequently approved changes to the city charter requiring a handgun permit, restricting gun storage in cars, banning assault weapons and enacting extreme risk protection orders, which are often called red flag laws.

The Memphis City Council adopted those measures after the referendum, but they aren’t expected to take effect unless state laws change, making it unclear whether Memphis would be punished.

Memphis City Council Chairman JB Smiley endorsed the gun-control measures amid a spike in gun violence, but Mayor Paul Young opposed placing the questions on the ballot.

Tennessee lawmakers rolled back the state handgun permit requirements at the request of Gov. Bill Lee four years ago, declined to enact red flag laws at the governor’s request and refused to pass gun storage and assault weapons bans.

Democratic Sen. London Lamar of Memphis called the bill an “affront to the separation of powers” taught in elementary schools.

“The attorney general doesn’t have the authority to choose which laws are constitutional and which ones aren’t. The power belongs to the courts,” Lamar said. “Let’s get back to work solving real issues – instead of creating legal problems.”

GOP leaders promise punitive tax move if Memphis passes gun restrictions; state moves to block them

Under the Sexton bill, which is sponsored in the Senate by Republican Sen. Adam Lowe of Calhoun, a state lawmaker could file a complaint about a local government and ask the attorney general to investigate. If the attorney general determines the local government is breaking the law and failing to reverse course within 30 days, the state could withhold all or a portion of state funds allotted to the local government, not just state-shared sales taxes.

McNally said in a statement the state Constitution is clear about constraining local governments to follow the law.

“Local government officials need to understand that there are real and tangible consequences for venturing outside their constitutional lane,” McNally said.

Sexton added that the legislature won’t allow “rogue” local leaders to sidestep state law or the Constitution and that they should “correct their course immediately.”

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti declined to challenge a judge’s order allowing the referendum questions to be placed on the ballot last year. Yet Skrmetti also called the referendum questions a “fraud on the voters” and a “futile stunt that wastes time and money.”

NASHVILLE — Multiple Tennessee lawmakers received subpoenas Wednesday to testify in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Glen Casada and his ex-chief of staff, Cade Cothren.

The Tennessee Lookout obtained a copy of a subpoena and cover letter from one lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity. The lawmaker said about 20 legislators were subpoenaed.

A federal marshal served the subpoenas on lawmakers during the second day of the 114th General Assembly session at the request of Nashville attorney Joy Boyd Longnecker and Cynthia Sherwood, the attorneys for Cothren. He and Casada face an April 22 trial on federal bribery and kickback charges involving state-funded constituent mailers run by a secretive vendor called Phoenix Solutions.

“In addition to the enclosed subpoena seeking your testimony in the defense’s case, you may be subpoenaed by the United States to testify in the government’s case,” Longnecker’s letter says.

Former state Rep. Robin Smith of Hixson pleaded guilty to federal charges in the case and is cooperating with prosecutors.

Cothren and Casada are accused of running a kickback scheme to help the former chief of staff after he was fired in 2019 for his part in racist and sexist text messages. A few months later, Casada resigned after a no-confidence vote by the House Republican Caucus.

According to federal documents, Cothren secretly ran the vendor so his identity wouldn’t be known, and Casada and Smith directed business to him from Republican House members. Cothren was paid nearly $52,000 to do constituent mailers for House members.

The House Republican Caucus also hired Phoenix Solutions, purportedly run by the bogus “Matthew Phoenix,” and paid him roughly $140,000 to do caucus work.

Cothren has denied wrongdoing, saying the work he was hired to was accomplished. Yet the indictment says he signed a W-4 federal tax form as Matthew Phoenix after the Legislative Administration required House vendors to fill out tax documents.

Cothren also has claimed he helped Rep. Cameron Sexton win the House speakership in 2019 before being paid tens of thousands of dollars through his business. He sought to subpoena phone records from Verizon Communications and Confide Inc., an encrypted message service, to show numerous communications between him and Sexton during 2019 and 2020 when he says he was a confidante of the Crossville Republican and worked on his speakership campaign before being ditched.

Casada resigned from the speaker’s post in August 2019, after less than a year on the job, amid the scandal involving Cothren and complaints about heavy-handed leadership. In addition to the texting scandal, Cothren admitted to using drugs in the Legislative Plaza offices, which upset several House members.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee confirmed Wednesday for the first time he would deploy National Guard troops to deport undocumented immigrants if President-elect Donald Trump makes the request.

Speaking to reporters after a groundbreaking event at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology on White Bridge Road in Nashville, Lee said no plan exists for Trump’s strategy to remove criminals who came into America illegally and no requests have been made to use Tennessee National Guard troops for deportation.

Yet Lee said he fully supports Trump’s plan to remove criminals that are undocumented immigrants, even though the next president has talked, not necessarily about removing criminals, but about deporting some 18 million immigrants, including U.S. citizens who are the children of undocumented parents.

“What I believe is that President Trump was elected saying what he wanted to do and the people elected him in a very strong fashion,” Lee said. “And I am supportive of his strategies going forward, and if that includes utilizing the national guard at the president’s request, then I’ll work together with governors across the country to do that.”

Lee previously issued a statement saying he asked state agencies to prepare to support Trump’s efforts to secure the nation’s borders and keep communities safe. That came after he spoke vaguely about the matter in a December press conference, saying the next president will set his strategies and the state would work to “implement strategies that work for Tennessee.”

Tennessee immigrant rights group condemns Gov. Lee’s commitment to support Trump deportations

He said that a day before the Republican Governors Association issued a letter signed by Lee saying it stands “united” in supporting Trump’s commitment to deal with the “illegal immigration crisis and deporting illegal immigrants who pose a threat to our communities and national security.”

The governor declined to speculate Wednesday about whether troops from some states might go into other states to deport immigrants if governors refuse to follow Trump’s orders to deploy their national guards.

A one-time mass deportation of about 11 million people who lack permanent legal status and 2.3 million more who crossed the U.S. southern border from January 2023 through April 2024 could cost an estimated $315 billion, according to the American Immigration Council.

The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition previously condemned Lee’s commitment, saying the move would hurt families and the local economy. The immigrant rights group said business leaders, economists, faith leaders and legal experts believe such a plan would be “disastrous.”

Republican leaders in the Tennessee legislature back Lee’s willingness to use troops, while Democrats criticize it as an attack on the immigrant community.

The chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee is looking at legislation that could streamline the process for voter rights restoration, making it easier for felons who’ve served their time to go to the ballot box.

Republican state Rep. Bud Hulsey of Bristol told the Tennessee Lookout he started holding meetings last week on a measure to simplify the process, a move that could help nearly half a million Tennesseans, 200,000 of whom are Black residents, to regain their voting rights.

“It’s been patchwork for so long that it’s a mess for a judge to try to interpret what is the right decision,” Hulsey said.

Hulsey noted at least five bills designed to improve the system for voter rights restoration came before his committee last session, leading him to ask his legal assistant to start formulating legislation “that will clean all that mess up” and come up with a “reasonable, lawful way for somebody to get their voting rights back.”

Hulsey agreed that it is difficult to regain voting rights in Tennessee and blamed disparate laws placed in state code at different times.

Gov. Bill Lee offered mild support this week for an effort to ease the process in light of a New York Times video commentary critical of Tennessee’s voter rights restoration requirements.

Restoring voting rights after a felony is rare in Tennessee. This year, the process got harder.

The state is tied up in a lawsuit over restoring those rights to felons, a case set to be argued this fall. A federal judge ruled in April that Tennessee election officials can’t deny eligible felons the opportunity for voter registration and that they must inform potential voters of eligibility requirements.

Under state law, people who’ve served their time for felony convictions can regain their voting rights, but the prospects are dim.

They can either obtain a pardon from the governor after filling out a litany of paperwork and making a formal request or go through the expensive proposition of hiring an attorney and persuading a judge they should be allowed to vote again. This requires a certificate of restoration and proof that all fines and fees have been paid.

The video points out fewer than 1% of applicants succeed, and only 3% of those who seek a pardon from the governor receive one.

In addition, applicants have to regain their ability to carry a weapon, because in Tennessee the right to bear arms is a right of citizenship, based on an interpretation the Secretary of State’s Office started enforcing early this year.

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton ruled recently that four people convicted of felonies can’t be barred from regaining their voting rights because the offenses prohibit them from carrying a gun, according to an Associated Press report.

Tennessee Democrats, contending the state has one of the lowest percentages of voter participation nationally, have sponsored numerous bills in the Legislature over the years to simplify the process for voter rights restoration but failed to pass them in the body controlled by supermajority Republicans.

One that failed last session would have changed the revocation of voter rights for infamous crimes to a temporary suspension and restore them once a prison sentence and probation or parole are completed. Another would have set up automatic restoration of voter rights once a person completes a prison sentence, along with adding seditious conspiracy to the list of offenses for which voting rights could be revoked.

Hulsey’s plan marks a bit of reversal for the conservative lawmaker, a retired law officer from upper East Tennessee who also believes the state should be able to nullify federal laws and orders it believes are unconstitutional.

Nevertheless, he met with interested groups last week to start determining whether the proposal would fix “all the problems.”

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.

A West Tennessee prosecutor has requested a state investigation into a Memphis senator for allegedly breaking state law by posting documents online containing a defendant’s personal information, possibly after obtaining it from the Gibson County Sheriff’s Office.

District Attorney General Fred Agee confirmed to the Tennessee Lookout he filed a complaint with the Comptroller’s Office and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, asking them to investigate whether Republican Sen. Brent Taylor put information on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing a man’s birth date and Social Security number, which would be a Class B misdemeanor accompanied by nearly six months in jail.

Agee, a Republican whose prosecutorial district covers Crockett, Haywood and Gibson counties, requested the appointment of a pro tem prosecutor to look into the matter. He said the items were posted online for at least 10 hours.

“With all the identity theft that goes on daily, I felt I had a duty to report it and to also ask for a special prosecutor since (Taylor’s) social media post was directed toward me,” Agee told the Lookout.

Taylor responded to questions by text message Tuesday, saying he posted the public record “for the benefit” of constituents and West Tennesseans to show an example of “outrageous plea deals” Agee reaches. He reiterated his claim that Agee and Mulroy are “soft on crime.”

“When I discovered one of the dozens of documents, that have been passed around more than a joint at a Willie Nelson concert, may have possibly contained a Social Security number, I quickly replaced them with newly redacted documents out of an abundance of caution,” Taylor said.

As part of the investigation request, Agee said he asked the state’s investigative agencies to see whether the Gibson County Sheriff’s Office gave the information to Taylor. Separately, Gibson County Sheriff Paul Thomas has been indicted in connection with directing inmate labor to an outside company he owned as part of a $1.4 million scheme.

The situation stems, in part, from an op-ed Agee wrote Aug. 6 for the Daily Memphian supporting Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy, a Democrat accused of being soft on crime and threatened with an ouster by Taylor and House Speaker Cameron Sexton. Taylor has said he will file legislation to have Mulroy removed from office during next year’s legislative session.

Taylor posted documents within the last two weeks to paint Agee as a liberal prosecutor by detailing a plea agreement Agee’s office made with Brewston Lamonte Cole, who has been convicted of multiple DUIs, drug possession, firearms possession, violation of the sex offender registry and violation of probation. Cole was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but that was suspended for probation or supervision by Community Corrections. He had served nearly four months in jail already after having his bond revoked and will receive a harsher sentence if he doesn’t comply with probation requirements.

As part of that post, Taylor put up three Google Drive links containing the plea agreement document that listed Cole’s birthday and Social Security number. The Lookout has obtained screenshots of Taylor posts and those links, which have since been removed and the documents reposted without the personal information.

The state Comptroller’s Office declined to confirm it has been requested to investigate the matter.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.

Tennessee’s House and Senate speakers are threatening to punish Memphis by cutting its share of sales tax revenue – more than $75 million – if voters approve referendums restricting weapons, a move likely to force Memphis to sue the state.

Continuing a feud with the Democratic-controlled Bluff City, Republican leaders, House Speaker Cameron Sexton of Crossville and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally of Oak Ridge, announced Monday in a news release the Legislature “will not tolerate any attempts to go rogue and perform political sideshows.” Their statement says they plan to withhold state shared sales tax to any local government that tries to circumvent state laws.

The speakers’ move comes in response to referendums set for Memphis’ November ballot asking voters whether they approve amendments to the city charter requiring a handgun permit, restrictions on gun storage in cars, an assault weapons ban after Jan. 1, and authority to enact extreme risk protections orders often referred to as red flag laws. Following the Republican leaders statements, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said his office won’t allow the referendums, all but guaranteeing a lawsuit, according to multiple reports.

A Monday letter to Shelby County Commission Chairman Mark Luttrell from Tennessee Elections Administrator Mark Goins says state law preempts firearms regulation and extreme orders of protection from local ordinances and leaves “no authority” for the city of Memphis to propose charter amendments on them, thus any referendum would be “facially void and cannot be placed on the ballot.”

But City Council Chairman JB Smiley said Monday, “We believe we’re right on the law.” If the council gives him the authority, he said he will instruct the city’s attorney to file a declaratory judgment in Chancery Court to put the questions on the ballot.

Memphis City Councilman Jeff Warren, who sponsored the referendum resolutions, said he believes Sexton and McNally are confused on the issue, because the referendums would be “enabling” measures that couldn’t take effect without the approval from state lawmakers. Smiley agrees with Warren, saying the City Council would have to act on the referendums too.

“What we’re hoping will happen is the state Legislature will look at this and say, … ‘They’re trying to combat their violent crime by being able to do something about these people with these guns that don’t need them and are using them to commit crimes,” Warren said.

The local government would be able to enforce those resolutions only with state backing, he said.

Warren, a physician by trade, noted people in rural areas are more likely to need weapons to protect crops and livestock from varmints, but that the situation is different in urban areas such as Memphis, where people are “driving around in cars, doing donuts with AK-47s hanging out the car.”

Still, the House Speaker’s Office contends Memphis shouldn’t be trying to pass such measures if they don’t have the effect of law. It further believes they are a tactic to drive voter turnout in November, possibly affecting Republicans with marginal support such as Rep. John Gillespie of Memphis.

“With the recent actions of the progressive, soft-on-crime (district attorney) in Shelby County and the Memphis City Council’s continued efforts to override state law with local measures, we feel it has become necessary to take action and protect all Tennesseans’ rights and liberties. We hope they will change course immediately,” Sexton said in the statement.

McNally echoed the sentiment, saying, “The Tennessee Constitution clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities of the state and local governments. Shelby County needs to understand that despite their hopes and wishes to the contrary, they are constrained by these explicit constitutional guardrails.”

The Republican-controlled Legislature has declined to pass any such proposals the past two years despite a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville where six people, including three 9-year-olds, were killed in March 2023.

Memphis leaders say they’re searching for a solution to an “epidemic” of gun violence that escalated after the state’s General Assembly passed a permit-less handgun carry law.

Memphis City Council Chairman Smiley, co-sponsor of the referendums, said the Legislature can’t legally withhold Memphis and Shelby County tax revenue.

Smiley contended “it’s anti-democratic if we don’t want to listen to the people,” and noted the council’s actions have not violated state law. He called the speakers’ statements “premature.”

“If they believe they’re within their right to withhold tax revenue that’s duly owed to the city of Memphis, we would like to see what the judges say,” Smiley said, predicting such action by the Legislature would be found unconstitutional.

The state lost a handful of court battles with Nashville over the past two years after trying to control Davidson County’s sports, airport and fairground authorities, in addition to cutting the number of Metro Council members from 40 to 20.

Republican state lawmakers has been at odds with Memphis Democrats for several years and passed a measure earlier this session turning back a Memphis ordinance designed to stop police from making “pretextual” traffic stops for minor violations that can lead to confrontations. The council approved that measure in response to the death of Tyre Nichols who died after being beaten by five Memphis police officers when he was stopped for reckless driving in January 2023.

In addition, Sexton and Republican Sen. Brent Taylor, of Memphis, are trying to oust Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy, a Democrat, claiming he isn’t prosecuting criminal suspects effectively. Even so, the latest reports show the crime rate dropped in Memphis over the last year.

Memphis-based lawmakers erupted Monday in reaction to the speakers’ statements, calling them a form of blackmail

Democratic state Rep. Justin J. Pearson of Memphis said the withholding of state tax dollars would lead to a lawsuit. Pearson was one of two lawmakers expelled from the Legislature for leading a protest on the House floor for stricter gun laws in 2023 in response to The Covenant School shooting. The Memphis City Council returned him to the General Assembly a week later.

Pearson contends Sexton and McNally “can’t help themselves but to unconstitutionally and anti-constitutionally reach into local governments’ matters.” The freshman lawmaker called their announcement “ridiculous, reckless and racist” and also referred to their actions as “tyrannical and authoritarian.”

He noted Sexton is now saying a “majority Black city can’t self-govern” after having him and Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville, both young Black men, expelled from the state General Assembly.

Pearson pointed out the nation was founded on the concept of “no taxation without representation” but that the speakers want to take Memphis’ state shared tax dollars because of the possibility that city voters could disagree with them about gun laws.

Democratic Sen. London Lamar of Memphis accused Republican lawmakers of “dismantling” gun laws and allowing weapons to “flood” the state while “turning a blind eye” to the impact on families and neighborhoods. Under Gov. Bill Lee’s leadership, the Legislature passed a permit-less handgun carry law, and the age was lowered to 18 as the result of a settlement between the state attorney general and a group that sued the state.

Gunshot wounds are now the leading cause of death for Tennessee children, she said.

“The ballot reforms being considered by Memphis voters are common-sense measures designed to curb this epidemic of violence,” Lamar said. “Our community is crying out for solutions, and instead of being met with support, we’re facing intimidation from state politicians who should be our partners in ensuring safety and justice.”

House Minority Leader Karen Camper also blasted the speakers’ move, pointing out Shebly County generated $2 billion in sales tax revenue last year.

“To suggest that these vital funds could be withheld over a local decision aimed at ensuring public safety is shortsighted and counterproductive,” she said in a letter to McNally and Sexton.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.