Legislators, Be Careful What You Wish For

The Tennessee House of Representatives meets for the General Assembly and legislature in this file photo.
The Tennessee House of Representatives meets for the General Assembly and legislature in this file photo.

In an effort to finish its business for the year, the Tennessee General Assembly is shedding bills like a fall tree sheds leaves.

Legislators are unlikely to say they haven't had enough time to consider specific pieces of legislation, but several of their recent actions seemed akin to sending an angry email before you've counted to 10 and reconsidered it.

One of those was the 55-38 House vote Wednesday to make the Bible the official state book. Fortunately, the Senate wisely voted 22-9 on Thursday to send the bill back to a Senate committee, effectively killing it for the year.

Had it passed the Senate and eventually become law, the bill would have so trivialized the inspired word of God that it became a line in the Tennessee Blue Book - alongside the state amphibian.

Neither a negative opinion from Attorney General Herbert Slattery nor opposition from Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, House Speaker Beth Harwell, and Republican leaders Rep. Gerald McCormick and Sen. Mark Norris made much difference in the House.

Nor did the understanding that a lawsuit was practically a given if the bill became law.

"There are some things that are worth standing up for," said Rep. Andy Holt. "I think it's time for our body to make a stand."

The wisdom and guidance found in the Bible are worth standing up for and for imprinting on our hearts and in our minds. Its example of the life of Jesus Christ is worth emulating, and its principles are worthy to be the foundation of our businesses.

But its significance goes beyond being a state symbol. Thank goodness the state Senate understood that.

On Wednesday, legislators also made it clear they didn't appreciate being sued over a lack of funding for education when they added an amendment to a budget bill that would forbid the school districts suing them from using state or Basic Education Program (BEP) funds for expenses related to their lawsuit.

That was the right thing to do because no individual student, teacher or school should be punished because their school system decided to sue the state.

But, in the same amendment, legislators turned around and said if the systems suing the state lose their case, the state could take its expenses related to the lawsuit out of the state portion of BEP funds it owes the school district.

That was the wrong thing to do.

So, if the school districts - including Hamilton County - lose their suit, they rightly would have to pay their own expenses for the lawsuit but wrongly would see individual students, teachers and schools hurt because they would be out their portion of the state's lawsuit expenses.

The lawsuit itself is understandable, if ill timed, as counties for years have not received their promised share of BEP funds. But Gov. Bill Haslam - even the day before the suit was filed - had pledged action and possible changes to the BEP formula. Now, if the amendment to the budget bill passes, the suing counties really will have to consider the cost to everyone concerned if they decide to go forward.

Also moving along Wednesday, but being more carefully considered than the previous two pieces of legislation, are the abortion regulations passed by the Senate. One would require a 48-hour waiting period and specific physician counseling for women before having the procedure, and the other would require that any facility in the state that performs more than 50 abortions annually would be required to be an ambulatory surgical treatment center.

The measures, which are protective of women's health rather than detrimental to it as pro-abortion supporters maintain, are being scrutinized along the way in order that they be able to stand up to constitutional challenges over any potential "undue burden" they put on women.

Both the 48-hour waiting period and the physician counseling were law in the state until 2000, when the state Supreme Court, finding it had broader authority than the U.S. Constitution, struck down a number of abortion regulations on the book. But Tennessee voters, in a ballot initiative in November, passed a measure 52.6 to 47.4 percent saying the state constitution could not secure the right to abortion or require the funding of an abortion.

Passage of both abortion bills in the House also appears likely, and Gov. Haslam said he is "comfortable with the direction" the bills are going.

We believe both are reasonable, not "undue burdens," and could positively affect the lives of women now or later.

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