Trump is a go as Tennessee attorney general refuses to render opinion on putting felon on ballot

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said Friday his office cannot offer opinions on election eligibility after being asked for a ruling on whether convicted felon Donald Trump can appear on the Tennessee ballot. (Photo: John Partipilo)

The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office is declining to give an opinion on a lawmaker’s request to determine whether former President Donald Trump can be placed on the state ballot this fall after being convicted of a felony.

In a letter to Democratic Rep. Vincent Dixie of Nashville, who requested a formal legal opinion, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said, after careful consideration, his office cannot opine based on a state law dealing with election eligibility.

“The Attorney General’s statutory authority is limited to providing ‘written legal opinions’ on matters submitted by officials ‘in the discharge of their official duties.’” Skrmetti’s office notes, “And Tennessee’s election officials – not individual members of the General Assembly – enforce (the state law) in specific factual scenarios.”

Tennessee’s Secretary of State, who oversees elections statewide, is not popularly elected but is appointed by the General Assembly.

This just highlights the broken criminal justice system in this country. There is no rational explanation for a way that a person can possibly be elected POTUS by this state, and if that same person lived in Tennessee, they wouldn’t even be able to cast a ballot and vote.

– Rep. Vincent Dixie, D-Nashville

Dixie said in a statement he is “disappointed” but “not surprised” by the AG Office’s response. He made the request after the former president was convicted in New York last months on 34 counts of breaking business laws by paying off porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged sexual encounter before the 2016 presidential election.

“This just highlights the broken criminal justice system in this country,” Dixie said. “There is no rational explanation for a way that a person can possibly be elected POTUS by this state, and if that same person lived in Tennessee, they wouldn’t even be able to cast a ballot and vote. How does that make sense?”

Trump won about 68% of the vote in Tennessee two years ago against Democratic President Joe Biden.

In his letter to Skrmetti, Dixie pointed out that state law says, “A person who has been convicted in this state of an infamous crime … or convicted under the laws of the United States or another state of an offense that would constitute an infamous crime if committed in this state, shall be disqualified from qualifying for, seeking election to or holding a public office in this state, unless and until that person’s citizenship rights have been restored by a court of competent jurisdiction.”

The Attorney General’s Office letter, though, claims Dixie’s letter “rests on an incorrect premise,” that the state law regarding a “public office in this state” includes the U.S. presidency, which it points out is not a Tennessee public office.

The letter written by Solicitor General Matt Rice claims that “any state effort to add new qualifications for the U.S. president would raise serious constitutional questions.” He refers to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in which all nine justices agreed that states can’t place qualifications on the U.S. presidency.

Dixie’s request of the attorney general might have been moot, regardless of the response. Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office told the Lookout shortly after Dixie requested the opinion that Trump is eligible to be on the Tennessee ballot as the Republican Party’s nominee and voters will “make their decision in the upcoming election.”

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