Judges temporarily halt implementation of law reducing Nashville's council

Cassandra Stephenson, Nashville Tennessean
Updated ·4 min read
27

The process of shrinking Nashville's council is on pause — for now.

A panel of three Tennessee judges on Monday granted an injunction that temporarily halts the implementation of a new state law limiting city and metropolitan councils to 20 members or fewer.

Metro Nashville sought the injunction as part of a lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality to prevent "irreparable harm" to local elections scheduled for Aug. 3.

"What is clear is that in January legislators launched an assault on Nashville with bills that affect the council, the authorities, our ability to do several things where it appeared that Metro was the only target of that legislation," Metro Nashville Law Director Wally Dietz said during a news conference Tuesday.

The decision relieves some pressure on Metro Nashville, which the law put under a tight timeline to reapportion and draw new districts in compliance with the Council Reduction Act. Nashville's 40-member council is the only city or metro council in Tennessee that has more than 20 members, meaning it's the only local government immediately impacted by the statute.

With the injunction in place, Metro Nashville can move forward with its Aug. 3 election with 40 council seats on the ballot.

“We are grateful that the court issued an injunction based on its unanimous finding that Metro is likely to succeed on our claim that the Legislature violated the Constitution by changing the rules for Metro alone in the middle of an election,” said Dietz in a statement Monday.

The new law had given Metro Nashville limited options:

  • Adopt a new set of 20 or fewer council districts by May 1 and hold elections for those district seats on Aug. 3.

  • Do not redistrict by May 1 and remove council seats from the Aug. 3 ballot, instead extending the current Metro Council's terms by one year. An election would then be held in 2024 with new, compliant district maps, and those new council members would serve three-year terms. Elections would proceed on a regular 4-year term schedule starting in 2027.

Redistricting before the Aug. 3 election would have required more than three dozen candidates who have already launched campaigns for Nashville's 40 council seats to quickly identify a new district and complete required paperwork by the May 18 qualifying deadline.

More: You asked, we answered: What we know about shrinking Nashville's council

An injunction doesn't mean the lawsuit has been decided in Metro's favor — litigation will continue and the three-judge panel has yet to rule on the merits of the lawsuit itself. Metro's lawsuit has been combined with another suit filed by a group of eight community leaders arguing that the new statute disenfranchises Davidson County voters by depriving them of their right to elect their local legislature every four years, as stated in the state constitution.

"My sense is that people all over Nashville were feeling hopeless and powerless, that there was nothing they could do," Dietz said Tuesday. "So the mere fact that we filed this lawsuit, we received expressions of support and gratitude from people all over Metro, and then winning the injunction yesterday affirms that the legislature does not have carte blanche"

As the losing party in the injunction decision, the state now has the opportunity to appeal. Due to the urgency of the law's timeline, it's likely the state will ask the Tennessee Supreme Court to hear the appeal directly, skipping the state court of appeals, according to Dietz. If the supreme court agrees to consider the case, it will hear the arguments and rule on whether or not to let the injunction stand, likely on an expedited timeline.

"We are currently reviewing the court’s decision," said Elizabeth Lane, a spokesperson for Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, whose office represented the state in the case.

The Tennessee Supreme Court selected one judge or chancellor from each of the state's three grand divisions to form the judicial panel considering this case in the Davidson County Chancery Court.

  • Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal, a Democrat serving Davidson County. She is the chief judge on the panel.

  • Judge Mary L. Wagner, a Memphis judge who won nonpartisan elections to serve the 30th Judicial District Circuit Court Division VII in 2018 and 2022 and previously served as chair of the Shelby County GOP.

  • Chancellor Jerri S. Bryant, a Republican serving Bradley, McMinn, Monroe and Polk counties.

Wagner and Bryant indicated in the injuction order that they did not think Nashville was likely to ultimately succeed in overturning the 20-member cap on metro council members. But they stated "there is a compelling public interest in preserving the integrity of the Metro election process that is already underway."

Moskal argued the city had a valid constitutional argument that it should not be subject to the 20-member cap.

The three-judge panel will continue to hear the case going forward.

Read the full ruling below.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Judges temporarily halt law reducing Nashville's council