Correction: A previous version of the headline on this story incorrectly stated that the amendment could result in higher bail amounts. 

Two of Tennessee’s most prominent Republican leaders stood in Memphis City Hall Friday and announced a planned constitutional amendment that could reshape how bail is given to accused criminals in Tennessee. 

State House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Tennessee Sen. Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, said Jan. 26 that the amendment would allow a judge to deny bail for several crimes beyond first-degree murder. 

Sexton said the amendment would increase judicial discretion regarding bail and would require judges to say why or why not they granted bail. It was not clear what the amendment would say because its language was not released Friday. 

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The speaker gave examples of aggravated kidnapping and second-degree murder as crimes that the amendment could cover. He said the language would be filed by a legislative deadline next week. 

And the amendment could be irrelevant in many legal cases because judges have the discretion to set unaffordable bail — or, essentially, too-high of a price tag to get out of pre-trial detention — for some people accused of crimes based on certain factors, such as if a person is deemed a danger to the community or a flight risk.

Johnson and Sexton announced the campaign in Memphis and were flanked by Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a moderate Democrat who holds a nonpartisan office. Young described the announcement as bipartisan.

Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy also attended the news conference and said the amendment would be largely ineffectual because of existing judicial discretion on setting bail. He said he would support the amendment if its text included a specific reference to allowing judicial discretion. 

A constitutional amendment is not an ordinary bill. It would have to pass the House and Senate in two consecutive years and then go before a vote of the public, posed as a yes or no question in 2026.

‘It’s all about a balance:’ Lead Judicial Commissioner on affordable bail, public criticism

The announcement in Memphis drew a bipartisan bevy of officials and comes after months of statewide focus on Memphis crime — the city set another homicide record in 2023 at a time when crime was going down in other major cities. 

The constitutional amendment is statewide but the choice of Memphis for the announcement was intentional. It represented further attention from the state’s Republican leadership on Memphis. The city is largely represented by Democratic members in the General Assembly and is the largest majority Black city in the country.

Some local legislators in attendance framed the statewide amendment — and the Memphis-focused announcement — as a partnership between the city and state.

State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, said, “This not one of those things where people can say that the state Legislature is forcing their will on the city of Memphis. No. This is a solution that will impact every part of our state.”

Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Eads, said the city’s checkered past did not need to dictate its future and that Memphis stood ready to work with the state on its crime issue. Taylor is bringing a slate of other bail-focused bills this session.

“We have to solve this crisis in crime. Tennessee will not reach its full potential as long as its most famous city is sliding into chaos,” Taylor said

Another Memphis representative, who did not attend the announcement, disagrees. State Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, said Sexton’s visit represented more bad Republican ideas on crime.

“We do [not] need more laws & policies that fail our community, lock up our children, [and] disproportionately harm Black communities!,” Pearson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Josh Spickler, the executive director of the criminal justice reform organization JUST City, stood in the audience Friday. He said the constitutional amendment was theater.

“We’re here apparently talking about amending the Tennessee State Constitution in response to short-term crime rates. Constitutions are foundational documents. They’re incredibly important to our state, to our society, and to take the step of amending the Constitution in response to a short-term crime cycle is irresponsible,” Spickler said. “It’s going to open a door that will be impossible to shut.”

New mayor appears alongside state leaders for first time

Young, the city’s new mayor, made his appearance next to statewide leaders Friday and his remarks reflected a desire for continued cooperation with Nashville and repeated themes from his inaugural address on Jan. 1 — about changing the perception of Memphis, the Blackest city in the U.S. 

“I want to make sure that that is a designation that we hold with honor, that we hold with dignity, is one that only we can claim. When people think of Memphis, we want them to think of Black wealth, Black culture, a city that has a soul and a swagger that can’t be replicated,” Young said. “That’s the vision that we have and the path forward for our city. But in order to get there, we’re going to have to address the issues that we have around crime on all sides of the aisle. This isn’t about partisanship. This is about us. This is about our city, our state, and we’re on a mission.” 

The new mayor also said he would not always agree with the politicians assembled behind him.

“We’re not going to agree on everything. But we all agree that we need to break the cycle of violence,” Young said. 

Announcement follows years of bail discourse 

The crime wave has also put political scrutiny on Shelby County bail practices, which changed early last year to allow judicial commissioners – the government officials who set bail – to consider the defendant’s ability to pay and direct them not to set unaffordable bail unless the person was deemed a threat to the public or unlikely to meet their next court date. 

‘Who are these judicial commissioners’ reviewing arrests and setting bail?

The new practices, which started in mid-February 2023, also created a new bail hearing room that granted people bail or no bail based on their circumstances. That room isn’t the only place bail is given; judges can still conduct bail hearings.

Politicians outside the Shelby County court system have used anecdotal cases to show that the new practices have led to an explosion of crime and that judicial commissioners have set bail too low for a series of violent offenders who were then accused of more crimes while out on bail. 

There’s been limited data on the bail changes. Shelby County government’s pretrial services division measured the number of people arrested while out of pretrial detainment before the changes took effect and after. It found 11% of people out of pretrial detainment were arrested before the changes took effect and it fell to 7% after. The sample was small, however, and only covered a few months. 

Aarron Fleming and Ian Round contributed to this report.