The Tennessee Constitution, like the federal constitution, establishes three branches of government. The legislative branch is elected by the people to represent their interests in the crafting of the state’s public policies. Although the state constitution also provides for the office of governor, that office is not one of a “ruler”. The office of governor, constitutionally, is that of an administrator to implement and carrying out the public policies of the state as enacted by the Legislature.
In Tennessee, however, a practice has arisen where the governor has, at present, in excess of 40 taxpayer funded “lobbyists” whose jobs include telling the elected legislators what the “administration” wants the law to be. We saw this with Bill Haslam and the massive gas tax increases. We saw this will Bill Lee in his 2021 permitless carry law (which creates nothing more than an affirmative defense to a criminal charge).
TFA’s Richard Archie discusses the Tennessee constitution and the fact that this system of using taxpayer funded lobbyists to lobby the legislature in ways that are often against the interests of the people – particularly the 2nd Amendment – is not constitutionally authorized and may raise serious questions about whether such taxpayer funded individuals are either violating separation of powers considerations and/or potentially engaging in official oppression.
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