Making the Bible the official book of Tennessee would violate Constitution, state AG says
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Updated: A legal opinion by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery says a proposal to make the Bible the official book of Tennessee would violate the state and federal constitutions.
Slatery said making the Bible the official Tennessee book “must presumptively be understood as an endorsement of religion.” He cited the Tennessee Constitution, which states that “no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religion establishment or mode of worship.” The provision is even stronger than the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause, Slatery said.
The Tennessee House passed the bill 55-38 on Wednesday, but the state senate killed the bill in a 22-9 vote on Thursday, reports the Tennessean.
Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris told the Tennessean that the senate had sent the bill back into committee so that the objections raised by Slatery could be fully examined. Norris and his fellow Republicans Gov. Bill Haslam and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey had all opposed the bill.
“I am a Christian, but I am also a constitutionalist and a conservative. It would be fiscally irresponsible to put the state in a position to have to spend tax dollars defending a largely symbolic piece of legislation,” Ramsey said in a statement, after the bill was sent back to committee. “We don’t need to put the Bible beside salamanders, tulip poplars and ‘Rocky Top’ in the Tennessee Blue Book to appreciate its importance to our state.”
Norris told reporters he expected that the supporters of the bill would bring it back for consideration next year.
A lead sponsor of the measure, Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, had said before the votes that Slatery’s legal opinion wouldn’t dissuade him from moving forward, according to an earlier Associated Press story. “That’s his opinion,” Southerland said. “I’ve got a different one.”
Updated on April 16 after the Tennessee legislature voted on the bill.
