TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Jun 16, 2020

State House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, yesterday moved to amend a law to make camping outside the state Capitol a felony, the Tennessean reports. Sexton’s move comes days after a small campsite was set up outside the Capitol and reports began to circulate that a group of individuals intended to establish an “autonomous zone” there. The autonomous zone movement began in Seattle where organizers made a temporary encampment covering multiple blocks of the city in an effort to demonstrate a society without law enforcement. The current law, passed in 2012 after the Occupy Nashville protest, makes it a misdemeanor to camp on certain state properties that aren’t marked for doing so. Sexton’s amendment, in addition to making camping on most state property a felony, also clarifies that merely erecting a tent would qualify as camping.