MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The state is seeking clarification on the court’s order allowing a temporary injunction and permission to appeal the ruling blocking the use of the National Guard in Memphis.
Defendants, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, and Adjutant General of the Tennessee National Guard, are asking the court to certify the following questions:
State’s appealDownload
- Whether plaintiffs—who sue in their official capacity as government officials—are “affected person[s]” that benefit from Tenn. Code Ann. § 1-3-121’s waiver of sovereign immunity?
- Whether plaintiffs have standing to challenge the Governor’s deployment of National Guard to support the Memphis Safe Task Force?
- Whether the Governor’s deployment of the National Guard to support the Memphis Safe Task Force violates Tenn. Code Ann. § 58-1-106? That states the governor has the power to deploy the Guard in the case of invasion, disaster, insurrection, riot, attack, or combination to oppose the enforcement of the law by force and violence, or imminent danger thereof, or other grave emergency, to order into the active service of the state.
The state is asking the court to consider and rule on the motion by Friday.
Secretary of War prepared to send 1,000 troops to Memphis
The Secretary of War said he was prepared to send up to 1,000 Tennessee National Guard troops through September of next year, according to an unclassified Department of War memo obtained by WREG.
In the September memo, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth proposed sending up troops to Memphis and allowing them to engage in law enforcement operations under the authority of agencies that request the Guard…