Ten Bad Bills Bite the Dust in the Senate Judiciary Committee

Sen. Todd Gardenhire

by Rod Williams, March 26, 2026- In every session of the State legislature, there are a bunch of silly, pandering, or performative pieces of legislation introduced. Thankfully, most never become law.

Sometimes I think a legislator introduces a bill in response to something a constituent says to him, and he thinks it sounds like a good idea at the time, but when the bill is researched, it is discovered that what the legislator would like to accomplish has a lot of consequences the legislator did not foresee, or would be much more costly than foreseen or would be unconstitutional. In that case, the bill is often killed in Committee.

I imagine that is the case with the bill to ban Pride flags in State public buildings. If this had been restricted to classrooms, the bill might have made sense, but it applied to all buildings and workspaces. When applied to college dorms, this could violate First Amendment protections. And, if one cannot have a small Pride flag in one's work cubicle, can one have a UT pendant in one's work cubicle?

In a single procedural move on Monday, the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee effectively killed 10 controversial bills by deferring them to February 2027. Because the 2027 date falls within a new legislative term, these bills cannot be carried over and must be reintroduced from scratch to move forward. 

The maneuver to kill these ten bills was led by Committee Chairman Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga). The ten bills included a couple related to gay rights. SB1745 sponsored by Senator Janice Bowling and in the House by Representative Gino Bulso said that a law of this state that prohibits sex discrimination must not be construed to prohibit

• Discrimination against a person for being homosexual or transgender.
• Discrimination on account of or because of sexual orientation, sexual behavior, gender identity, or gender non-conforming behavior.
• The establishment or enforcement of sex-segregated restrooms, locker rooms, shower facilities, changing areas, dormitories, or sports teams.
• The establishment or enforcement of sex-specific dress or grooming codes.
• Discrimination on account of or because of any conduct related to abortion.

Wow! That is pretty extreme. This would likely have been found unconstitutional and cost the State a lot of money defending it in Court. It is now dead!

SB 1746 also by Senator Rollings and Representative Bulso said that private citizens and organizations are not bound by the Fourteenth Amendment or the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges to recognize a marriage between individuals of the same sex and it would have prohibited the board of professional responsibility from disciplining or sanctioning an attorney for declining to officiate a marriage between two persons of the same sex. That was bound to be costly to defend and indefensible in Court. 

There were seven bills to loosen gun regulations in Tennessee or expand the legal use of deadly force. I have not looked at each of them, but if interested, the bill numbers are SB 2467, SB 1227, SB 824, SB 2478, SB 993, SB 1851, and SB 1405. They are all now dead.

As long as we have people like Senator Rollings and Rep. Bulso in the State legislature, we can be thankful for people like Senator Todd Gardenhire, who keeps the Legislature from passing costly, embarrassing, and stupid bills. 

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