Courts are beginning to affirm actions that our legislature neglected to take to defend your rights.

It is nice to be able to say that I told you so. But in contrast, it is also painful to realize that so many individuals were coerced into making medical decisions that have proven to be harmful, and our legislators stood by and watched it happen.

Article X, Section 2 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee is where you will find the oath of office of taken by members elected to the General Assembly. And the last part of that oath goes like this…

“…or consent to any act or thing, whatever, that shall have a tendency to lessen or abridge their rights and privileges, as declared by the Constitution of this state.”

This is where you come to understand that a state legislator has a sworn duty and obligation to defend the rights of the people they represent. In fact, beyond budget appropriations and attending to other matters of law, it is their primary function.

State representatives do not swear an oath to pass a budget and ensure that corporations are subsidized with your tax dollars. No. They take an oath to ensure that your rights are not abrogated by those to seek to take them from you, in this case, in particular, the federal government.

In October 2021, we reported extensively on the procedures as they took place in the year’s third extraordinary session of the legislature to pass the COVID Protection Bill, which is now Title 14 of the Tennessee Code Annotated.

One of the issues we found with the bill as it was making its way through approvals was TCA § 14-6-102(a) which states:

A provision of chapter 2 or 6 of this title does not apply to a private business, governmental entity, school, or employer that submits notice in writing to the comptroller of the treasury that compliance with a provision chapter 2 or 6 of this title would result in a loss of federal funding, to the extent such an exemption is necessary to conform to federally awarded or amended contracts, subcontracts, or postsecondary grants as a condition to receipt of federal funds.

We sounded the alarm bells and quickly ended up in a conference room with about 20 members of the House interested in what we had found. NOT ONE OF THEM had realized that this language to continue allowing federal contractors to mandate a shot for COVID was in the bill.

The next step was the Senate floor. I quickly found Majority Leader Jack Johnson in the halls of the Capitol. I made sure that he understood that this language was in the bill (which he did) and pleaded with him to use his influence as Majority Leader to get this language removed from the bill. I told him that “this was Tennessee’s opportunity to stand up to the federal government and tell the Biden administration that we will not comply with these unconstitutional mandates. We cannot pass laws that give deference to illegitimate powers, and we must defend the rights of Tennesseans. We have a duty to do so.”

Senator Johnson gave me two responses.

“We just don’t have the votes on the Senate floor.”

“We have decided that we are not going to pass a law that might put us in front of the court.”

The first statement I can forgive (even though his job as Majority Leader is literally to get the votes). But the second one, to me, is a cardinal sin. If a state legislator is afraid of a court, then they are in the wrong business. It was at that moment that I decided that Jack Johnson deserved a primary challenge to his senate seat.

Why is all of this important?

Because just a few days ago on December 19, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that I was right all along. And, our state legislators should have taken a stand against an encroaching federal government for the sake of Tennesseans that were facing impossible odds.

The court ruled that:

“We do not, and cannot, rule on the efficacy of any vaccine, the wisdom of the President’s action, or even whether or not this action would, in fact, increase economy and efficiency in federal contracting. Today, we are asked, where Congress has not authorized the issuance of this mandate, whether the President may nonetheless exercise this power. We hold that he may not. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the district court’s grant of an injunction.”

Here, the Fifth Circuit affirms the argument that we have been making all along. When it comes to the law, it is not about science, emotions, or what anyone feels must be done. The only question that lawmakers and executives must ask themselves is, “Do I have the authority given to me to (fill in the blank)?” That is the only question that matters.

So, thank you to Attorney General Landry and the state of Louisiana for taking on this fight. Unfortunately, while lawmakers were too chicken to stand up for the rights of Tennesseans, many have already been coerced into the jab. For those who have been paying attention, imagine the damage already done. And all it took to avoid all of this was for someone to stand.