Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, argued Tennessee Chancery Court Judge Patricia Head Moskal’s injunction halting Governor Bill Lee’s National Guard deployment to the Memphis Safe Task Force is both legally flawed and politically motivated.
On Monday, Moskal ordered a temporary injunction to reverse the governor’s decision to deploy the National Guard as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, writing that the far-left legal groups behind the lawsuit are likely to succeed at proving their claims that the deployment overstepped Tennessee state law.
Pappert said the judge has essentially elevated herself to the role of both governor and president in her ruling by claiming Lee lacked authority to activate the National Guard.
“This is a chancery court judge elevating herself to the role of governor and president, determining that Governor Bill Lee did not in fact have the authority to send the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force,” he said on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Noting how the Memphis Safe Task Force had already made hundreds of arrests before the National Guard arrived, Pappert said the Left’s legal victory is “hollow.” However, he acknowledged the plaintiffs successfully persuaded Moskal to side with them on the question of overreach from the governor.
“This is a bit of a hollow victory for the left…But of course, the number of plaintiffs in this case, it’s like a who’s who of Tennessee Democrats and immigrant activist groups, they sued claiming that this was an overreach of the governor’s authority and the chancery court judge sided with the plaintiffs,” Pappert explained.
Pappert disputed the judge’s reasoning that Memphis is not experiencing a “grave emergency,” arguing that Memphis crime is a decades-long “civil disturbance,” making Guard support both justified and necessary.
“It absolutely is a civil disturbance. It’s almost insulting to the people of Memphis for these Democrats and this judge, frankly, to get up there and act there was no reason for the National Guard to be deployed,” Pappert said.
“As long as I’ve been reporting about Tennessee, we’ve been talking about Memphis crime. It’s been happening longer than I’ve been alive,” he added.
Pappert stressed that the Lee administration warned that Moskal’s ruling could limit a governor’s ability to mobilize the National Guard not only for crime-related emergencies, but also for future crises, including natural disasters.
“The attorneys for the Lee administration said this decision has the potential to not only limit the National Guard deployment during the civil unrest that has happened every day in Memphis for decades, but this could in fact limit the governor’s ability to deploy them when actual new emergencies start occurring,” he explained.
Citing past emergencies where the National Guard was deployed under existing authority, Pappert pointed out that if Moskal’s interpretation stands, the governor could be barred from sending the National Guard to similar disaster response situations.
“This could and probably will prevent the governor from activating the National Guard should the next hurricane season be even worse,” Pappert said.
“It’s really an irresponsible decision from this judge,” he added.
Pappert also detailed Moskal’s background as a judge, pointing to her consistently left-leaning rulings siding against Republican policies in high-profile cases.
He listed past rulings in which she blocked GOP-backed laws, including matters involving open records, the size of the Nashville Metro Council, abortion-related laws, and disputes over Confederate symbols.
Pappert said Moskal’s record shows a pattern of ruling with Democrats and activists, making Monday’s injunction unsurprising.
“She was an appointee of Governor Bill Haslam back in 2019 and by 2023, she was already ruling in favor of Democrats who were suing Governor Bill Lee to obtain more open access records…She was also one of the panel judges who made the decision back in 2023 to stay the law changing the size of the metro council. She also was one of the people in the Planned Parenthood decision who blocked a state law allowing the discipline of doctors who performed abortions in violation of Tennessee’s state law. She was also the judge who said that Williamson County had done nothing wrong by removing its Confederate flag,” Pappert explained.
“The list goes on and on…She has reliably – in every controversial case that has come across her desk – sided against the Republicans and in favor of the Democrats or whoever else may be suing the Republicans,” he added.
Concerning Monday’s ruling, however, Pappert said he is confident Moskal’s judgment will be overturned.
“Within the next five days, we will have notice of the government’s appeal submitted formally, and then it will go up to the appellate courts, where the judges seem to be a little bit better at practicing law in Tennessee,” he said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tennessee National Guard Members” by Tennessee National Guard.
