A leader of the push for a special legislative session on transgender bathroom use is putting the effort on hold.
House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada says it looks like there’s no longer a need for lawmakers to weigh in.
Casada started the petition to hold a special meeting. He did it after the Obama administration told school districts they’d be running afoul of federal anti-discrimination rules if they don’t let transgender students use the facilities of their gender identity.
Casada worries Tennessee districts will be sued, and he wanted to compel the state’s attorney general, Herbert Slatery, to defend them.
But now Slatery has told Republican leaders he’ll take the case, which is good enough for Casada. He says the only reason to hold a special session was to protect Tennessee school districts from a directive he sees as unconstitutional.
That’s being met in Sumner County, Casada says, and “it’s safe to assume that if you’re helping one county, you would help others that got sued.”
Special sessions are usually called by Tennessee governors, often to deal with major legislation. But state lawmakers have managed to do it only twice — in 1971 to give 18 year olds the right to vote and in 1982 to meet at the World’s Fair in Knoxville.
To get together, two-thirds of the lawmakers in the House and in the Senate would need to sign off. Casada says he had 57 signatures in the House, nine short of the number needed in that chamber.
The Senate had not even begun the process.
Casada says the petition won’t be thrown out. He plans to keep it on file, just in case interest in the session bubbles up again.
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