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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Democratic-leaning city of Nashville’s Metropolitan Council will hold all 40 seats for now, under a temporary decision issued Monday by three state judges. The ruling impedes an effort by state Republican lawmakers to cut the council in half after it blocked the 2024 Republican National Convention from coming to the Music City.
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Nashville has operated under a combined city-county government system with 40 council members since 1963, when leaders struggled to consolidate the city and surrounding county while advocates ensured that black leaders maintained strong representation there.
The new statute in question would require Nashville to establish new city districts by May 1, a deadline city officials say is unreasonable.
Three state court judges — one from Nashville, one from Shelby County, and one in Athens, Tennessee — concurred, saying there is a “overriding public interest in preserving the integrity of the Metro election process already underway.” going on.”
Nashville government officials who filed the lawsuit have argued that changing the composition of the council will throw this year’s election into chaos, in part because it would require redrawing district boundaries after more than 40 candidates run campaigns. launched.
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Monday’s ruling blocked the requirement pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
“The court believes that the implementation of the law and the reduction provisions at this late date will create unrest in the electoral process, voter confusion and potentially compromise the integrity of the August 3, 2023 general election in Davidson County,” the justices wrote. .
Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office is defending the state against the lawsuit. His spokesperson, Elizabeth Lane, said the office is still reviewing the decision.
Wally Dietz, the law director for the Nashville city government, which is seeking to overturn the new law, said in a statement that Nashville officials are “grateful that the court issued an injunction based on the unanimous finding that Metro is likely to pass to our claim that the legislature violated the Constitution by changing the rules only for Metro during elections.
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The state law, which only applies to city or town governments, would reduce Nashville’s combined council to 20 people. No other city or town in Tennessee has more than that.
If a metro government cannot implement the changes in time for the next election, current members’ terms are assumed to be extended by one year to accommodate the changes, and the next four-year term reduced to three. The election cycle would then return to once every four years.
City officials have said the arrangement violates the state constitution.
A quarter of Nashville’s council seats are held by black members, half by women, and five members who identify as LGBTQ+.
Tennessee’s GOP-dominated state house passed legislation earlier this year that cut the number of seats in half, one of several proposals Republicans have introduced to shake up Nashville politics.
One bill would include part of Nashville Rep. John Lewis Way have been renamed Trump Boulevard. That legislation has since been enriched for years. Another measure would reconfigure Tennessee police oversight boards and a third would block cities from using public funds to reimburse workers who leave the state to have an abortion. Tennessee’s abortion ban is one of the strictest in the country. Some minor exceptions await the governor’s signature.
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Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville contributed to this report.
