The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Tennessee
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Tenn. Code Ann. sec. 8-6-109 (Attorney General opinions); construing Tenn. Code Ann. sec. 58-2-107(a)(1)-(2)
- Issued
- 2020-04-27 Apr. 27, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-04-27 (opinion) (read as 2020-04-27)
- End
- n/a (opinion) (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Apr. 27, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Emergency declarationStanding duty
- Addressees
- political subdivisions and local health departments; persons generally (the orders bind as law)
- Character
- agency interpretation
- Collection
- Standing duties: Tennessee DUT-TN
Operative words
Because the executive orders that the Governor issues pursuant to that authority have the force and effect of law, Tenn. Code Ann. sec. 58-2-107(a)(2), the Governor's directives in response to an emergency supersede and preempt any action taken by political subdivisions of the State.
Penalty
The opinion recites the force-of-law provision; the penalty is sec. 58-2-120 (Ex. DUT-TN-007)
What it required
Stated, for every State and local officer, that the COVID-19 executive orders are 'the law of the State,' that the General Assembly vested the Governor with 'exclusive responsibility and authority to assume control over all aspects of the State's response,' and that absent delegation local entities 'may not take actions that are either more restrictive or less restrictive with respect to the subjects addressed in the Governor's executive orders'; it also confirmed the Governor's power to delegate to 'the local health department' powers 'as the governor may deem prudent,' the footing of Executive Order No. 54 (Ex. TN-021) and of the six locally run health departments' stricter orders preserved by Executive Orders 30 and 38 (Exs. TN-013, TN-018). Character as recorded: agency_interpretation (Attorney General opinion).
Retrieval noteOfficial PDF from the Attorney General's site (598,059 bytes). The letterhead date is in the image layer; the date April 27, 2020 is taken from the Attorney General's own citation of this opinion in Opinion No. 20-14 ('Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 20-07 (Apr. 27, 2020)', Ex. DUT-TN-015). The text layer of the Analysis section is doubled-character (shadow text); the Question and Opinion sections extract cleanly and are the passages quoted.