Republicans often talk up states' rights as a sacred principle, but in this decade they have amped up the squashing of states' rights when they caught the states actually doing something sensible for people.
In a mutation of failed "trickle down," just as the U.S. Congress has cast down decrees abridging laws upon states, many state legislatures -- including Tennessee -- have defecated down on cities and counties.
Examples in Tennessee include: 1-- State takeover and smashing of free public education and converting whatever "education" is left, especially in Democratic-voting Shelby and Davidson Counties, to for-profit schemes. 2--The state legislature overriding cities of Memphis and Nashville wanting to lessen marijuana possession as a crime. 3--Legislation against cities wishing to require minority hiring quotas for public contracts. 4--Pushing past cities' and counties' desires to keep firearms out of their public parks and other spaces.
In an almost-funny reverse reflex, Tennessee legislators a couple of years ago pledged to arrest any federal officers crossing the state border to enforce federal laws about firearms.
Balko gives us chapter and verse from the mouth of Sessions.
