Here’s an unsuccessful Letter to the Editor of The Tennessean:

Ron Barrett writes, “I find it very hypocritical of our legislature, the same bunch who for years have complained of ‘federal overreach,’ to do the exact same thing to the city of Nashville,” (”Hypocritical legislature,” April 3).  This misunderstands the vertical distribution of power between Washington and the states compared to that of Tennessee and its municipalities.

Under the Tennessee Constitution, municipalities depend on the General Assembly for their charters, and thus for the delegation of any powers that cities exercise.  Cities often must carry out state laws:  when Metro arrests someone for DUI, it’s not a municipal code but a state law they are enforcing.  This is how the system has always worked.

The U.S. Constitution, on the other hand, establishes states as largely independent sovereigns. States don’t have to depend on the goodwill of the party controlling Congress at any given time for permission to exercise state powers.  States set rules governing contracts, prosecute murders, and perform a number of other functions, all without needing authorization from Congress.

Under the Supremacy Clause of the federal Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court’s preemption doctrine, Congress can dictate policy to states in certain areas.  When Congress goes outside the lanes established by the Constitution, that’s when conservatives get upset.

So the biggest hypocrites in Tennessee aren’t conservatives at Legislative Plaza setting policy for cities, which they have always done, but progressives who think Congress should control health care, but then crow about “local control” of state policy.

Photo: Gstewart89 [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons