TCOG raises serious concerns about museum commission’s restrictive speech policy
The Joint Government Operations Committee held a public hearing today on the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission's new restrictive speech policy for its commissioners. Below are comments I delivered as TCOG's executive director outlining why the policy is at odds with open government, the Tennessee Constitution and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. My comments were part of the public comments part of the hearing, which followed about an hour of questions from members of the joint committee, led by its two chairmen state Sen. Mike Bell and state Rep. Jeremy Faison. Almost all of the lawmakers expressed deep concern about the commission's new policy and how it came about. [...]