Nearly 600 bills were passed by the Tennessee legislature this year! Many of them were good sense reactions to and preventative measures against the leftist, anarchist radicalism sweeping certain parts of our country and our state. One bill in particular that has passed into law this year is rather comical — establishing Nashville’s hot chicken as an official state food!
As victims of stalking committed by my brother, “Pastor” Ken “Max” Parks (and by some of his cult goons), my husband and I were very pleased to see the passage and signing into law of SB0335/HB0602, the Voyeurism Victims Act, which adds protections for victims being recorded or photographed without their consent. Similarly, the passage into law of SB1346/HB1299’s Preventing Deepfake Images Act empowers victims to pursue both civil and criminal actions against those who publish without consent intimate digital depictions of their victims. Also, of additional protection to stalked and “doxed” victims was the passage into law of SB1296/HB1314, which creates additional penalties against those who post online people’s addresses and phone numbers, especially for the purpose of inciting harassment. This has been a tactic used by my brother “Pastor” Ken both when we lived in Connecticut and since we’ve lived in Tennessee.
My husband and I were basically forced to leave Connecticut almost twelve years ago because, as crime victims of my cult leader brother “Pastor” Ken Parks’ stalking, death threats, and aggressive harassment, we could not get the state’s attorneys (similar to other states’ district attorneys) to enforce clearly written laws. In Tennessee our voices calling for protection were heard, in conjunction with other victims’ voices, in the 2018 enactment of the Abuse of Civil Action law that finally put a stop to my brother “Pastor” Ken and other stalkers like him weaponizing the courts by filing abusive, meritless lawsuits pro se (without a lawyer). Tennessee’s 2019 enactment of the Public Participation Act — an anti-SLAPP law — has further protected us as we’ve exercised our free speech right, as attorneys advised us to do, to post public court and police records and other factual documents about “Pastor” Ken, who has made himself a public figure, so as to fight against his extreme online defamation against us and other people, and to warn the public of the danger he poses to people. The good sense bills that our Tennessee legislators have passed and that our governors have signed into law in the nearly twelve years we’ve lived in Tennessee would have never seen the light of day in the leftist, corrupt legislature in Connecticut.
Here are some other very good bills that were proposed and passed by our Tennessee legislators and signed into law this year by Governor Lee that protect both our US Constitutional rights and our Tennessee State Constitutional rights to live in safety and without totalitarian tactics imposed by the federal government:
- SB0845/HB1097 — Requires the Attorney General’s office to investigate and penalize any local state governments that pass ordinances, laws, or policies that violate the Tennessee State Constitution.
- SB0263/HB0318 — Prohibits the enforcement and recognition of requirements or mandates issued by the World Health Organization, United Nations, or World Economic Forum in this state or its political subdivisions.
- SB1084 / HB0923 — The Dismantling DEI Departments Act bans all state agencies, local governments, and public education entities from promoting or requiring diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
- SB0030 / HB0055 — Makes it a misdemeanor for someone to intentionally refuse to give one’s name or give a false name to a law enforcement officer who has lawfully detained or arrested a person and requested the information.
- SB0227/HB0811 — Allows a charitable organization that provides housing to a person whom the charitable organization knows is unlawfully present in the United States to be held liable for a loss, damages, injury, or death resulting from a criminal offense committed by the person who is unlawfully present in the United States while the person is receiving housing services from the charitable organization if the charitable organization’s conduct in providing housing constitutes negligence, gross negligence, or willful and wanton misconduct.
- SB0392/HB0322 — Creates the offense of human smuggling; creates the offense of harboring or hiding, or assisting another in harboring or hiding, within this state an individual who the person knows or should have known has illegally entered or remained in the United States; authorizes the attorney general to take certain actions against a person or organization who commits or is about to commit a human trafficking offense or an aggravated human trafficking offense.
- SB1086/HB0749 — Creates the Class B misdemeanor offense of operating a motor vehicle in this state with an invalid driver license; designates out-of-state driver licenses issued exclusively to illegal aliens as invalid driver licenses in this state.
As a retired educator, I was very pleased to see the following bills passed and enacted into law:
- SB6001/HB6004 — The Education Freedom Act, or School Voucher Bill, allows parents or other caregivers to tap into the state’s education freedom scholarship program so their children can attend a private school.
- SB0897/HB0932 — Requires local boards of education and public charter school governing bodies to adopt a policy to prohibit students from using wireless communication devices during instructional time, except in certain circumstances.
- SB0811/HB0825 — Requires Tennessee’s Education Department to develop social media and internet safety curricula for students in grades 6-12, and requires schools to use that curricula to instruct students.
- SB0471/HB0178 — Establishes that family life curriculum must include age-appropriate instruction and evidence regarding the positive personal and societal outcomes associated with the method by which a person completes the following in sequential order: obtains a high school diploma or high school equivalency credential; enters into the workforce or pursues a postsecondary degree or credential; enters into marriage; and has children.
There was one proposed bill that I wished had passed and become law. That proposed bill was SB0241/HB0206, “As introduced, requires the chief officer of an inpatient mental health treatment resource to notify the committing court if a patient who was involuntarily committed for mental health treatment becomes eligible for discharge; permits the court to hold a hearing to determine whether to order the person’s return to the hospital under the original commitment or order the person’s release from involuntary commitment in accordance with the recommendations of the chief officer.” If this bill had been passed and enacted into law, it would have allowed the courts to involuntarily commit someone with severe mental health problems to long-term or even permanent mental health treatment. This has been a crucial public safety issue that I dealt with extensively in my book Fighting for Justice: Religious Fraud, Mental Illness, and the Collapse of Law & Order, particularly in Chapter 7, “What the Collapse of the Mental Health System Looks Like.” We need sane long-term and permanent mental health commitment laws, and competent and compassionate privately-run state-monitored mental health facilities!
There are a couple of other bills we’re still working on with our legislators to get proposed, and hopefully get passed into law. One such bill is requiring judges to practice sua sponte judicial review of pro se litigants’ lawsuits before those lawsuits are given docket numbers and before defendants are notified. If judges would just practice judicial review, as is already their right and responsibility, then a significant number of meritless and abusive pro se lawsuits would be instantaneously dismissed, and the intended victims would be spared the distress and expense of having to defend their innocence. Our tax dollars would also not be wasted in hearings for meritless, abusive lawsuits brought by pro se litigants, nor in paying for increased court security when a pro se litigant gives every impression of being dangerously mentally unstable.
Another bill that needs to be proposed and enacted is a Clergy Authentication law that requires anyone using a religious title such as pastor, reverend, bishop, imam, rabbi, guru, etc., to have educational training from a United States accredited religious institution in order to qualify for a required state license to use such religious titles. Religious titles often evoke instantaneous trust from people, who can then reveal very personal, intimate details to those figures using those religious titles. With all the dangers and destructive behaviors from bad religious leaders that have become all too frequent, requiring accredited training and a license to call oneself by a religious title is really a no brainer and can provide a possible layer of protection worth having. Tennessee already enacted into law strict penalties specifically against clergy and others in positions of authority who abuse children (TCA 39-13-527). We require training and licensing for plumbers, electricians, and many other professionals, so requiring clergy to have valid training and licensing in order to use a religious title just makes good sense. It’s long past time to require those calling themselves by a religious title to put their money where their mouths are, show proof that they’re validly trained and licensed, and essentially put up or shut up when it comes to using any religious title.
The passage of good bills into law is good news! I emphasize yet again that the passage of good sense bills into law is a huge encouragement for us to continue to make our voices heard to our legislators!
