Metro Legal said winning council size case meant keeping Nashville government

Allison Bussell said she felt good.

On Monday, a three-judge panel sided with Metro Nashville on maintaining its council size. She had been the lead attorney on the case as the associate director of Metro Legal.

"This was really important for a number of reasons, and it was the first we filed after the flurry of litigation in 2023," Bussell said. "It's really about how the government sets the policy. And in earlier attempts to consolidate with a smaller council failed and that number meant something historical for the city."

Metro sued the state in March 2023 after lawmakers passed a bill to cut their council down from 40 members to only 20. The new state law said no city in Tennessee was allowed to have a governing body with more than 20 members. It was called the "Metropolitan Government Charter Act," and it targeted Nashville — the only city with a council that size.

Nashville has the third largest city legislative body in the United States — just behind Chicago and New York City. Republicans argued that's wasteful and want to reign that in.

Metro challenged the constitutionality of the act and sought injunctive relief (restraint of actions). They argued the decision was a violation of the Home Rule Amendment, which means that laws invoking control of a local government must be passed locally.

The court allowed the injunction before the 2023 council race. Bussell said trying to redesign the whole Metro Council months before its race would have meant chaos.

During the last two years, the Tennessee General Assembly passed pieces of legislation trying to snub Nashville in different ways whether it be its power over the airport, the sports authority, the fairgrounds or the number of Metro Council seats. Metro Nashville has sued over every single initiative.

And won.

"We are having success with three-judge panels on these cases," Bussell said. "It's not just Davidson County judges that are adopting our position. It's judges across the state that are agreeing with us that the state shouldn't be able to impose its will on local government in the way that it has attempted to do."

The squabble between the state and Nashville isn't anything new per se, but it heightened especially after Nashville's Metro Council didn't vote for the 2024 Republican Convention to come to town. Instead, the convention went to Milwaukee. Top-tier Republican lawmakers seethed in response, and legislation aimed solely at Nashville followed months afterward.

Bussell said she hoped the relationship between Metro and the state government would soften. In her estimation, she said she felt optimistic that it could do so.

"We build relationships with folks at the AG's office," she said. "We can’t always agree on policy and policies vary. Everything operates more smoothly when they stand in the bounds of their authority."

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office hasn't indicated whether they would appeal. If they do, this would go to a three-judge appeals panel.

Emily West is a journalist on the web desk. You can email her at emily.west@newschannel5.com.

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