Tennessee bill to declare God as source of liberty advances

April 5, 2017 at 2:12 p.m. | Updated April 5, 2017 at 2:12 p.m.

by Associated Press

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 28, 2015 file photo, mourner JeRee Wilson holds her fist in the air outside funeral services for Samuel Dubose at the Church of the Living God in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati. Dubose was fatally shot by a University of Cincinnati police officer who stopped him for a missing license plate. Volatile, racially sensitive questions of whether to charge police officers for fatal on-duty shootings, and whether jurors will convict an officer in such a case, hang over two of Ohio's largest cities. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, July 28, 2015 file photo, mourner JeRee Wilson holds her fist in the air outside funeral services for Samuel Dubose at the Church of the Living God in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati. Dubose was fatally shot by a University of Cincinnati police officer who stopped him for a missing license plate. Volatile, racially sensitive questions of whether to charge police officers for fatal on-duty shootings, and whether jurors will convict an officer in such a case, hang over two of Ohio's largest cities. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - After previously voting the bill down, a House panel has advanced legislation to amend the state constitution to say that God is the source of Tennesseans' liberties.

The House Civil Justice Subcommittee voted Wednesday to advance the measure sponsored by Republican Rep. Micah Van Huss of Jonesborough.

The bill failed in the same subcommittee last month. But the panel agreed to a motion to reconsider it.

The proposed addition to the Tennessee Constitution would read: "We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from almighty God."

Amending the Tennessee constitution is a lengthy process. Proposed changes must pass by a majority during one two-year General Assembly, and then pass by at last two-thirds in the next, and then be approved by voters in a gubernatorial election year.

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