Do you want keep buying cold beer from the store?
Do you want to bring your untrained support animal into restaurants?
Do you want a week in July to be a time of prayer and fasting in in Tennessee and seeks God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee?
Well, the Tennessee General Assembly has some good news and some bad news for you.
Hundreds of bills are filed each legislative session. Not all of them rise to the height of debate. Nor do all of them pertain to all Tennesseans. Remember when the ladder became the state tool? Oh, and hot slaw is on the way to becoming a state food.
Here are some bills now under consideration in Nashville are bold, specific, and sometimes just plain odd.
Speaking of specific, this bill allows adults to carry pepper spray, tasers, and “similar devices” (whatever those are) on college campuses. Oh, and those colleges can’t make rules against this, either.
“…it is not a criminal offense for an adult person to carry or possess pepper spray, a taser, or another similar device for purposes of self-defense when on property owned, operated, or in use by any college or university board of trustees, regents, or directors for the administration of any public or private educational institution…”
This one does have bearing in Memphis.
Protestors here like to close the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. If this bill is passed, the penalty goes up to a Class D felony. And anyone “who suffers loss or injury” from the road obstruction can sue those who do it.
This one’s already passed the full House (not the show).
It “prohibits emotional support animals that are not trained, or being trained, to perform tasks or work for a person with a disability from indoor areas of food service establishments.”
Just….here: ”Designates the period of July 1, 2024, through July 31, 2024, as a time of prayer and fasting in Tennessee and seeks God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee.”
You thought I was kidding.
Also here: “Urges the United States to withdraw from the United Nations.”
This one is so specific, it sounds personal.
The bill, ”authorizes a member of a homeowners’ association for a neighborhood in Williamson County with at least 300 single family residential homes and two or more gates restricting ingress and egress to the neighborhood to request a report from the board of directors for the homeowners’ association regarding criminal activity in the gated subdivision.”
So, just…like…keep on doing what we’re doing, I guess.
The bill “urges Congress to keep the power to declare war and for the National Guard to be protected from executive power.”
Maybe you thought I was kidding about the beer thing, too? Nope.
This bill “prohibits a beer permittee from selling at retail refrigerated or cold beer.”
It is now referred to a committee in the Senate. However, the bill lost several sponsors in the House last week, not a great signal for its passage. Phew.
