Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / The Rev. Paul McDaniel speaks during a panel discussion during a town hall meeting at Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist Church on Monday, Jan. 20, 2020 in Chattanooga, Tenn.NASHVILLE – Tennessee government’s founders in 1796 didn’t see much of a place for “ministers of the Gospel” and “priests” when it came to their serving in the state’s General Assembly, even inserting a provision in the first Tennessee Constitution specifically banning them from doing so.
But now, nearly a half century after the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978 struck down the state constitution’s Article IX Section 1 ban in a case brought by the Rev. Paul McDaniel of Chattanooga, modern-day lawmakers hope to put before voters in 2022 an amendment to delete the now-toothless 225-year-old relic.
Their vehicle is Senate Joint Resolution 55. Sponsored by Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, a social conservative, the resolution is scheduled to come up Monday in the Senate for the first of three readings in the current 112th General Assembly. After the third reading it will requires a two-thirds majority vote before going to the House for consideration.
The resolution is widely expected to pass both chambers given the votes it received in the prior 111th General Assembly, where it needed only a simple majority. If approved by both chambers this year, it would then be placed on the 2022 ballot where it would require a majority of voters in the governor’s race for it to pass and take effect.
Sponsor: 'I don't know the back story'