Memphis City Council members announced a legal maneuver last week that they equated to standing up to a bully. In this case, and in their estimation, that bully is the state’s Republican legislative leadership. The City Council is suing the Shelby County Election Commission over its decision to not include a three-part, gun-control ballot question on city voters’ November ballots. Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the referendum was “futile” and quickly cast the council’s move as not worth “escalating tensions” in the city’s relationship with state lawmakers. Most recently, the lawsuit is in the hands of Chancellor Melanie Taylor Jefferson who is set to hear the case Sept. 16. Also, The Daily Memphian reported on the rising tide of enhanced cell-phone restrictions at local middle and high schools; Wanda Halbert’s attorneys invoking a Florida federal court decision that threw charges against former President Donald Trump as part of their argument to dismiss ouster proceedings against her; and Frederick Agee, district attorney general for Tennessee’s 28th judicial district, calling for a criminal investigation into state Sen. Brent Taylor for documents Taylor posted online last month. — Metro editor Jane Donahoe
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The Memphis City Council’s lawsuit to vote for citywide gun-control measures in November pushes on as the September deadline for the ballot approaches.
By Bill Dries
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