With the Tennessee General Assembly set to wrap up its annual business this week, bills related to medical marijuana, the statewide judicial system and unemployment benefits are among those whose fortunes are rising and falling rapidly.
As is tradition, the chaotic death throes of the term drew national attention, this time when Knoxville Republican Rep. Justin Lafferty argued that the Three-Fifths Compromise — the 1787 agreement that prescribed counting enslaved people as less than a person for apportionment purposes — was good, actually. His statement came amid a debate about what Tennessee schools can teach about racism and discrimination.
The House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, disagreed on the debate Tuesday, as the House approved an amendment that could strip funding from schools where certain lessons on systemic racism are taught. The Senate refused to adopt the amendment, which could lead to further negotiations between the two chambers on Wednesday.
Other moves on Tuesday:
Statewide Chancery Court
A session-long effort to remake part of the Tennessee court system is in flux as the House and Senate have so far failed to reach an agreement on a bill that would create an entirely new court. Senate sponsor Mike Bell (R-Riceville) is sticking to his original plan of a new statewide chancery court, with a judge from each Grand Division, to hear all constitutional challenges of state laws. Tennessee Republicans have chaffed in recent years at adverse decisions by Davidson County Chancery Court judges related to legislation passed by the Republican supermajority. (Those same judges, some of them appointed by Republicans, have also ruled in favor of the state repeatedly.)
But in the House, Republicans are pushing an amended version of the bill, creating a “court of special appeals” that would not have original jurisdiction of the constitutional challenges except in cases related to redistricting. Their version of the bill would also eliminate the Senate’s proposal of electing the three judges in open elections. In the House version, the new judges would be treated like judges at the appellate and supreme levels — appointed by the governor, confirmed by the legislature and voted on every eight years in nonpartisan, noncompetitive retention elections.
The two chambers will have to reach a compromise before the legislation can be passed this week. Prospects for another bill related to constitutional challenges also remain uncertain. A bill seeking to limit local governments’ ability to sue the state, as they have done over the state legislature’s education savings account program, was tied up Tuesday. The House version was more limited, giving the state the ability to immediately secure a stay of any injunction issued by a trial court. (The education savings account program remains stayed after it was initially passed nearly two years ago.) The Senate version would do that, too, but would also prohibit local governments from using taxpayer money to sue the state. Senate sponsor Brian Kelsey of Germantown has so far been unable to secure sufficient support for his more expansive version of the legislation.
Medical Marijuana
After prospects for medical marijuana legislation appeared dire earlier this year, one limited effort is now cruising through the legislature. A new bill, which combines parts of two previous proposals, made significant headway Tuesday as a sort of compromise between longtime medical marijuana backers and skeptics in the legislature. The amended legislation — which passed in the Senate on a 19-12 vote Tuesday and is set for a Wednesday hearing on the House floor — would give Tennesseans criminal immunity for possession of 0.9 percent THC oil obtained in other states, as long as they have one of roughly a dozen qualifying conditions. People with epilepsy and seizures can already do that.
Under the new proposal, patients would have to get a letter from a doctor every six months asserting that they had the qualifying condition. The bill would not create a medical marijuana industry in Tennessee, which is a sticking point for some lawmakers who remain opposed. They say Tennessee farmers should benefit from any sort of legalization and that Tennessee patients should not have to risk any federal crimes related to crossing state borders with the drug, which remains at the highest level of federal restrictions, Schedule 1.
But supporters, including House sponsor Rep. Bryan Terry (R-Murfreesboro), said compromise required concessions. In a departure from normal procedure, Republicans like Terry sounded optimistic that Democratic control of Congress and the White House could lead to progress on removing marijuana from Schedule 1. House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), who opposed a more expansive version of medical marijuana decriminalization, said the new version was “the most palatable version.” It would allow patients with Alzheimer’s, ALS, end-stage cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, HIV/AIDS and sickle cell disease to possess the limited-THC oil.
Anti-Protester Roadways Bill
One effort that drew significant public attention fizzled out Tuesday, as Senate Republicans punted on a proposal to make blocking roadways a felony, give immunity to drivers who unintentionally hit protesters in the street and make it a crime for a person participating in a riot to intimidate someone. Advocates from the ACLU and the People’s Plaza testified in opposition to the bill, which was making progress in the House, during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday. Before killing the proposal for the year, Senate Republicans amended it to make the first offense of blocking a roadway a misdemeanor.
“This drastic penalty threatens to chill free speech,” Brandon Tucker, policy director for the ACLU’s Tennessee branch, said. Senate sponsor Paul Rose ultimately asked for the bill to be sent to summer study, generally a sign that it is dead for the year.
Unemployment Benefit Cuts
Legislative Republicans are poised to significantly cut the number of weeks Tennesseans are eligible for unemployment benefits while offering a modest boost to the weekly payout. Currently, the max payout is 26 weeks. Under a proposal that passed the House on Tuesday and is set for a Senate vote on Wednesday, that would be cut to 12 weeks when the unemployment rate is 5.5 percent or lower, as it typically has been in recent years.
Under the proposal, the maximum would increase as high as 20 weeks as the unemployment rate rises into double digits. Republican supporters blamed worker shortages and a sticky unemployment rate in Tennessee on unemployed workers who have supposedly chosen not to return to work and instead cash unemployment checks.
“This is a lifestyle alternative,” Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville) said. The bill would also boost payouts, which have not increased in decades, by $25. Sen. Brenda Gilmore (D-Nashville) called the proposal “just horrible” and said the state should be giving unemployed workers “a hand up” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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