Tennessee Amendment 1 – Scare Tactics and Distraction

How politicians are getting Tennesseans to vote away their constitutional right to bail

Tennessean’s have a big question to answer this election cycle.  Do they want to change the bail provision in the Tennessee constitution and expand a judge’s ability to detain more defendants or do they want to leave the bail provision untouched like it has been for the past 230 years.  To be honest, Amendment 1 has been a difficult question to answer and a very confusing issue for most.  Why?  Because the ballot question is misleading.

Proponents of the constitutional amendment have made it very difficult for the average voter to fully understand the magnitude and extent of Amendment 1.  As the amendment is written it includes a list of seven crimes.  The first six on the list are heinous crimes that everyone would agree to include.  The problem arises with the seventh crime.  This last item on the list is not a single crime that people can wrap their minds around.  It is simply a category of crimes known as the 85% crimes.  What that basically means is that those who are convicted of one of the crimes on the 85% list must at a minimum serve at least 85% of the sentence.  The problem is that there is no list of crimes included.  There is no description of how many crimes are on the list. In fact, there might not be anyone out there that even knows what the full list includes.  The only thing we know is that during legislative testimony it was mentioned that the 85% list could include more than 70+ crimes.  Some have commented that it might be over 100 crimes.

This is where opponents of the amendment have raised serious questions.  Where is the list of additional crimes.  Why aren’t they listed on the ballot?  How many crimes are included?  Why are they being hidden from the public?  And why are we supposed to give away our constitutional right to bail for an unknown list of crimes?  These are all legitimate questions, and they should be answered before a single YES vote is cast.  But unfortunately, they won’t, and the supporters of Amendment 1 seem to be just fine with that.

Remember, this isn’t some one-off proposition or rule change.  It is a constitutional amendment.  It is a permanent change to the highest most powerful legal document in the state of Tennessee.  How can voters be expected to add such a vague change into a document that is supposed to provide clarity and direction to our criminal justice system?  Voters need to know the full story of what they are voting for.

Amendment 1 is being sold as public safety and in order to make the sales pitch as effective as possible, they are using the scare tactic of listing 6 of the most heinous crimes they can think of.  That is not information, that is propaganda.  That is not truth, that is manipulation.  Tennesseans deserve to know what they are voting for this November.  They deserve to know just how much power they are being asked to give the government and the judicial system.  Until those questions are answered, Tennesseans choose to protect their constitutional rights.  They must demand honesty and sincerity from their elected officials.  Until then, they must vote an emphatic NO on Amendment 1.  Constitutional rights are too important and too sacred.  Once you give them up, you will never get them back.