State takeover of Nashville airport board to remain in place as lawsuit proceeds, judges rule

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A three-judge panel said it won’t stop Tennessee officials from taking over Nashville’s airport operations while a lawsuit challenging the recently enacted statute allowing the change moves forward.

In a decision handed down Monday, the judges criticized Nashville city leaders for “inexplicably” waiting weeks before they asked the court to block the law from taking effect. City officials had been aware of possible legal issues since Republican lawmakers proposed the legislation, which was signed into law in May, but they didn’t seek a temporary injunction until hours before it was set to take effect on July 1, the judges said.

The judges stressed that their ruling should not “be construed as indicative of our view of the merits of metro’s constitutional claims,” leaving open the possibility that it could be successfully challenged at some point.

The city and state have been at odds over who should control the bustling airport. The dispute started when the Republican-dominated Legislature approved plans for the state to make enough appointments to control the airport authority, which manages, operates, finances and maintains the international airport and a smaller one in Nashville. The change was one of several the Legislature passed as it sought to curtail the power of the Democratic-led city, where the liberal-leaning metro council sunk a bid to bring the 2024 Republican National Convention to Nashville.

The city then sued the state over the changes to the airport authority, but in the interim, the authority installed new board members that were appointed by state officials on July 1. The board did so after arguing that it couldn’t defy a state law without a court order.

According to the city’s lawsuit, the state violated home rule protections under the Tennessee Constitution by singling out Nashville without either a local referendum or a two-thirds metro council vote for the change.

The state counters that Nashville can’t make its claims because the airport authority is independent of the local government.

Other states have faced similar power struggles. Mississippi’s 2016 law to reconfigure Jackson’s airport leadership structure remains blocked by an ongoing legal challenge. Georgia lawmakers flirted with flipping the Atlanta airport’s governance in 2019 but ultimately the proposal was spiked.