Legislative Immunity and Civil Liberties

A Nashville chancery court has struck down as unconstitutional a Tennessee law that threatened local elected officials with a Class E felony and up to six years in prison if they voted for so‑called 'sanctuary' immigration policies. Chancellor Russell Perkins signed an agreed order Wednesday between the state attorney general’s office, the local district attorney and seven Nashville–Davidson County metro council members who sued, after Republican Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti refused to defend the provision and publicly acknowledged the Constitution’s 'absolute immunity' for legislative votes at every level. The invalidated section, enacted last year by the GOP‑supermajority legislature and Gov. Bill Lee as part of a broader anti‑sanctuary package, criminalized any local vote to adopt policies that impede ICE from detaining migrants, even though separate 2019 state law already makes sanctuary cities illegal by threatening loss of economic‑development funds. Legislative leaders pushed the felony clause through despite warnings from their own counsel that it likely violated legislative‑immunity principles, with House Majority Leader William Lamberth dismissing it as 'the easiest felony in the world to avoid.' Civil‑liberties groups and Nashville council members say the ruling reaffirms that government cannot prosecute officials for how they vote, a precedent likely to be cited in future fights over state efforts to punish local resistance to federal immigration enforcement.