Tennessee’s Star Chambers and the Unbridled Authority of Elected Officials and Bureaucratic Minions

For many in Tennessee, reading is hard. Even the most accomplished persons within the halls of our government seem to have great difficulty discerning the meaning of words and phrases enshrined in our documents which govern the limits on their authority.

Back in 2020, Tennessee Stands made a lot of noise about the limits on the authority of school boards to issue mask mandates and the unconstitutional nature by which Governor Bill Lee continued to rule by executive fiat. Many citizens spent two years in this state pretending that unelected boards of health had the authority to shut down businesses. We allowed a Governor to suspend our constitutionally secured liberties by executive order and hand off powers to county mayors and other officials without any action from our state legislature. And most egregious of all, parents neglected their God-given duties to their children and allowed schools to manipulate and abuse their children at-will with mask mandates, punishment by isolation, and shame and intimidation.

At that time, we challenged those actions in court. And while the case was dismissed on standing, we were successful in getting a Williamson County judge to acknowledge that he could find nowhere in state law by which a school board had any such authority to issue mask mandates. So, that begs the question…how were they doing it?

Well, the answer is…we let them.

In this video, we extensively laid out the differences between three county school boards and from where they felt they derived their authority to issue a mask mandate. Interestingly, we got three different answers. Which makes the point, these people are making up the rules as they go and there really is no such authority to enact these tyrannical policies.

But now, I want to hone in one very specific point because the issue of authority is now resurfacing, this time, in the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance (TREF).

During the school board fiasco, Sara Page, then acting general counsel for Rutherford County Schools, defended the board’s authority to issue a mask mandate based on T.C.A. § 49-2-203(a)(2) stating,

“Manage and control all public schools established or that may be established under its jurisdiction;”

Now, the problem with stopping here at this one statute is that the Tenn. Code continues on to define the limitations of that authority. But Ms. Page’s interpretation was that this one tiny subsection of law is all that is needed to support the notion that school boards have seemingly unlimited authority to do whatever it is they want to do as long as it is done inside the “public schools.”

To any discerning person reading this article, is it reasonable to think that the General Assembly’s legislative intent was to give local school boards complete and unbridled control over local schools with no limitations? Of course not. In fact, if you follow the link above to that portion of Tenn. Code, you will find that the statute is quite long and goes in detail describing exactly what local school boards have the authority to do.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated occurrence. Once again, we now encounter this exact same issue with the TREF. During a board meeting held on September 7, 2022, the board voted unanimously to audit the campaign records of Gary Humble. The issue is not necessarily the audit itself, but the manner in which the board called for the audit and whether or not they actually possess the authority to do so.

For 35 minutes, the board went back and forth on whether or not they had the authority to move forward with this seemingly unprecedented move. One board member suggested this immediate move to audit was perhaps a bit hasty and maybe the board should pause and just ask questions of the candidate first. Another board member made the statement, “So, if we get asked, why are we singling this candidate out?” It was clear that the board was questioning their authority to proceed.

Tom Lawless, a board member appointed by the Senate Republican Caucus, seemed undeterred in his mission to audit Mr. Humble’s campaign. Lauren Topping, general counsel for the TREF advised the board regarding their statutory authority per T.C.A. § 2-10-207(1).

“Hold hearings, conduct audits, subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, and compel production of books, correspondence, papers and other records;”

After quoting that portion of Tenn. Code, Ms. Topping concludes by stating, “There is no to whom limitation.” And here is the point. This is the same mistake made by Ms. Page regarding the authority of school boards. What Ms. Topping fails to acknowledge and therefore advise the TREF board is that Tenn. Code goes on in other parts of the chapter to define what it looks like to conduct an audit, and in what circumstances the board may subpoena witnesses, so on and so forth.

But according to Ms. Topping’s statement, the TREF seemingly has unbridled authority to audit or subpoena whomever it wants within the state of Tennessee regardless as to whether or not their request pertains to an individual, candidate, organization, corporation, private entity, or any association. And this is the precisely what the board is driving towards. They want to audit Tennessee Stands, a nonprofit organization and IRS-designated 501(c)(4) and they are searching for the authority to do it. We reported back in April of this year on the legislature’s intentions to target conservative grassroots organizations in the state. And here we are.

In response to Ms. Topping’s revelation about the authority of the TREF board, Tom Lawless (board member) excitedly responds, “It’s the star chamber!” Now this is important and incredibly revealing. Here’s why.

The Star Chamber (Latin: Camera stellata) was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late 15th century to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the common-law and equity courts in civil and criminal matters. The Star Chamber was originally established to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against socially and politically prominent people sufficiently powerful that ordinary courts might hesitate to convict them of their crimes. However, it became synonymous with social and political oppression through the arbitrary use and abuse of the power it wielded.

In modern times, legal or administrative bodies with strict, arbitrary rulings, no “due process” rights to those accused, and secretive proceedings are sometimes called “star chambers” as a metaphor. (Source: Wikipedia)

So, I want to be very clear here. This is how members of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance apparently see themselves. And this is important to understand. These appointed bureaucrats view themselves as having absolute authority with the power to compel individuals to any end and by any means. They do not view state law or the Constitution for that matter, as a hinderance or limitation to their power. After all, they are acting on behalf of the government.

We are fast approaching a time here in America where individual liberties, constitutionally secured rights, and limitations on government authority are just a distant memory of a failed experiment. Those in power will push the boundaries and it is incumbent on the people to have the ability to stand firm and ensure that those boundaries hold fast.

These tests concerning school boards and the TREF are the small ones. But hear me, the real tests are on the way. COVID was just the warm-up exercise.