Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has enacted a controversial law that makes racial justice protests on state grounds a felony crime, meaning convicted activists would be stripped of the right to vote in the upcoming election.
Tennessee automatically strips convicted felons of their voting rights.
The signing of the law last Thursday received little attention but sparked immediate accusations of voter suppression against Tennessee Republicans when the political landscape is already strained over similar balloting issues.
While the Trump administration continues to deride mail-in voting, Democrats are expressing growing concern that the current cost-cutting at the U.S. Postal Service appeared to be deliberate and seeking to undermine the delivery of ballots in November.
Lee, a Republican, signed the Tennessee bill into law last Thursday, taking aim at demonstrators who have gathered outside the state Capitol in Nashville since George Floyd's death in May.
The governor didn’t announce the signing Thursday nor did he post about it on social media. Reporters finally asked the governor about it during a state coronavirus news briefing the same day.
“I think what we saw was a courthouse on fire and businesses being broken into and vehicles being damaged. We saw lawlessness that needed to be addressed immediately. And that was done so,” Lee said, according to The Associated Press.
Under the new law, camping out on state property is now a felony punishable by up to six years in prison, according to The Washington Post. The law also would impose a mandatory minimum felony jail sentence for anyone convicted of assaulting an emergency responder or acting in a riot, and it would increase the jail time for vandalism of government property. Protesters would also be forced to pay restitution.
Civil rights groups expressed outrage over the potential implications for people of color.
"The racial motivation underlying the law is undeniable," said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is considering filing a lawsuit. "It's a clear backlash response to the Black Lives Matter movement and to people who are decisively protesting racial injustice and police violence."
Tennessee is also among a handful of states that does not allow voters to use the coronavirus as an excuse to vote by mail. There's also a law on the books that makes it a crime to distribute mail-in ballot applications.
Last year, a federal judge blocked a law that sought to restrict voter registration drives, the Post reported.
"To criminalize protest activity and disenfranchise voters on top of it defies principles that lie at the heart of our Constitution," Clarke said. "It's pouring fuel on the fire when communities are seeking justice, change and reform."
Over the weekend, Democratic state Sen. Raumesh Akbari pointed out in a tweet that the Tennessee law would have designated late civil rights leaders John Lewis and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “convicted felons,” the Post reported.
"We serve the people and should hear from the people," she wrote. "This is ridiculous."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee wrote to Lee on Aug. 14, asking him not to sign the bill, saying it “attacks our free speech rights, intentionally chilling the act of protesting by threatening those individuals with overly harsh criminal penalties.”
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