A Tennessee Democratic lawmaker is accusing the state’s attorney general of revising and withdrawing a legal opinion on National Guard deployment, enabling the governor to send troops to Memphis in violation of the state constitution.
Reacting to Gov. Bill Lee’s decision to order Guard personnel to Memphis at the request of President Donald Trump, Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville questioned the moves of both leaders, in addition to Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s deletion and then changing of a legal opinion in April 2024.
“That is not just reckless but seemingly lawless,” Yarbro said. “The reason that Americans are not used to seeing troops in combat fatigues patrolling American cities is not because nobody’s ever thought of it before. It’s because it’s illegal.”
Yarbro said the prohibition on military involvement in police work dates back to Tennessee’s 1796 constitution. A change in 1870 further limited the governor from deploying National Guard troops in a public safety operation to “execute the laws” or be part of a domestic law enforcement agency.
“You either have the rule of law or you don’t,” Yarbro said.