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DECEMBER 12, 2024 | VOLUME 36 | NUMBER 49
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U.S. v. Skrmetti sees day in SCOTUS Conservativemajority court is expected to rule in the late spring HANNAH HERNER
Surveillance cameras at a Nashville gas station
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
Contested chamber sinks police/Fusus contract Split Metro Council rejects video integration technology by one vote despite plea from mayor ELI MOTYCKA
Metro councilmembers blocked a new contract with Axon that would have brought Fusus, a video integration system, to the Metro Nashville Police Department. Approval of the contract secured just 20 votes — one under the 21-vote threshold for passage. Every member’s position proved pivotal. Several people spoke for and against the technology during Tuesday’s public hearing, including concerned citizens and certain professionals. Anti-Fusus community members packed the gallery, identifiable with matching buttons. Almost every councilmember spoke on
the floor; some spoke twice, as members voted repeatedly to continue discussion. Debate became an abstract exercise in weighing relative fears, with members caught between the possibility that police will abuse surveillance power and the threat of violent crime, as many Fusus proponents believe stronger video tools could help prevent repeat offenders. Metro attorneys and Dave Rosenberg, a former Metro councilmember, answered questions in the chamber on behalf of the mayoral administration. In February, Mayor Freddie O’Connell initially paused the city’s use of Fusus, an Axon
product that combines hardware and software to allow police to view private video collection with owners’ consent. The city had been operating on an existing contract that counted hundreds of cameras across the city. Hours before the meeting, O’Connell leaned on members to extend the Axon contract, publicly expressing his confidence in additional guardrails to discourage inappropriate uses. Members considered new tweaks, including a “kill switch” enabling the chamber to immediately terminate the contract with a vote, that strengthened Metro oversight. Both Rosenberg and >> PAGE 2
Tennessee was on the national stage again on Dec. 4 as the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments for and against the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors in U.S. vs. Skrmetti. Three Tennessee families with trans children, a Memphis physician, the ACLU, the federal government and other legal entities on the side of the U.S. sought to prove that the law violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. With a conservative majority of justices (six to three), the plaintiffs face an uphill battle to win the votes of at least two conservative justices, which would prevent the ban on puberty blockers, hormone therapy and — in rare cases — surgeries for trans youth. At least 25 states have similar laws banning such care. Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion when the court ruled four years ago that firing trans workers because they are trans is a form of illegal sex discrimination. (Gorsuch did not ask any questions during Wednesday’s proceedings.) Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has characterized the case as protecting “vulnerable kids from risky and unproven medical practices.” He also wrote an opinion piece on the case for The Tennessean this week. Tennessee’s legal team argued this week that gender-affirming care restrictions are in the same vein as abortion restrictions — they regulate a medical procedure. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians support access to gender-affirming care. “Tennessee’s General Assembly reviewed the medical evidence, as well as the evidence-based decisions of European >> PAGE 3 countries that restricted these
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