Tennessee's governor on Monday stood by his decision to sign sprawling limits on COVID-19 restrictions into law, even though his own office warned the bill would violate federal disability law and put the state at risk of losing federal funds.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee's governor on Monday stood by his decision to sign sprawling limits on COVID-19 restrictions into law, even though his own office warned the bill would violate federal disability law and put the state at risk of losing federal funds.his legislative counsel's email warning to lawmakers, said he thinks “the bill on balance is good.
In the early hours of Oct. 30, the night the bill passed, Lee’s legislative counsel privately warned staffers for Senate Republican leaders they were running afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. The email, sent at 12:44 a.m., noted an earlier effort by the governor’s office to flag the same issue. The Associated Press obtained the email in response to a public records request.
The federal protections are at the heart of a lawsuit by families of children with disabilities, who so far have succeeded in getting a federal judge to block the new law's tight limits on COVID-19 requirements in schools — including on mask mandates. At a hearing Friday, the plaintiffs’ counsel moved to enter the governor’s office email as evidence and read it out loud in court. The state objected, citing the source of the legal analysis, to which Judge Waverly Crenshaw responded: ”“From a source who likely knows what she’s talking about.”
Republican legislative leaders, who called the three-day session to take action against COVID-19 mandates after the governor declined to do so, have lauded the final bill despite objections from prominent business interests, school leaders and others.