TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Apr 28, 2026

three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled that Gov. Bill Lee's October 2025 deployment of the National Guard to Memphis is legal, reversing a judgement from Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal. The Commercial Appeal reports that three questions were brought by the state to the appeal: whether plaintiffs invoked an available waiver of the government's immunity (known as sovereign immunity) from being sued, if they have standing and if Lee violated state law in deploying the National Guard to Memphis. According to the Daily Memphian, the panel weighed whether or not the plaintiffs had standing to sue — holding that they did not — and did not address whether Lee's deployment order was legal. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a press release that the ruling "recognizes that an elected official who disagrees with this effort does not have the right to veto the Governor by filing a lawsuit. When elected officials disagree about policy, we resolve that at the ballot box, not the courts." Read the appellate opinion