Metro Nashville’s authorities filed its fourth lawsuit against the state this year, difficult lawmaker-imposed adjustments to its board overseeing sports activities venues, together with the Bridgestone Arena, Geodis Park and Nissan Stadium. 

Earlier this yr, Republican lawmakers handed laws giving the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House six appointments on Metro Nashville’s 13-member sports activities authority. 

Lawmakers justified the appointments due to the $500 million in state taxpayer contributions for a brand new $2.1 billion NFL stadium in Nashville to interchange Nissan Stadium..  

“We cannot sit idly by and let the state deprive the metropolitan government and the people who live here of their rights under our Tennessee constitution,” stated Metro regulation director Wally Dietz in a press release. 

The new regulation — which works into impact on Jan. 1 — doesn’t give the state majority management of the sports activities authority board, in contrast to one other new regulation giving management of the airport’s board to the state. 

A 3-judge panel will hear the case as a result of lawmakers handed laws in 2021 the place any constitutional declare towards a state regulation is heard by a gaggle of judges from every grand division. 

Metro Nashville will battle the sports activities board regulation based mostly on the house rule modification, which prevents state lawmakers from passing legal guidelines particularly focusing on a neighborhood authorities with out its permission. 

Republican lawmakers pass six bills targeting Nashville during the 2023 legislative session

Last month, Dietz’s workplace used this argument to win a lawsuit towards state-forced changes around the votes needed to approve renovations on the Nashville Fairground Speedway. 

The division can also be difficult a state regulation requiring the Metro Council to be reduce from 40 to twenty members and one other which gave state officers six of eight appointments on a board overseeing the Nashville International Airport.

Judges blocked the Metro Council discount from going into impact whereas the case performs out in court docket. The new airport board went into impact on July 1, with judges permitting it to stay in place whereas the lawsuit continues. Judges held a listening to within the airport case on Oct. 6. 

The state legal guidelines and lawsuits stem from escalating tensions between the Republican-controlled legislature and the Democratic-controlled council.

Republican lawmakers divided the town’s U.S. Congressional district in February of 2022, serving to flip the traditionally Democratic-held seat. The Metro Council then blocked the 2024 Republican National Convention from coming to the town in August 2022. 

Lawmakers handed six payments earlier this yr focusing on varied Metro Nashville boards. 

Nashville’s authorized division declined to file fits over a regulation eliminating the police oversight board and laws restrictions on how the board overseeing the Music City Convention Center spends its cash.