It is not often that the Tennessee Firearms Association and abortion rights advocates find themselves on the same side of a fight at the state legislature, but a bill sponsored by Sen. John Stevens would make it harder for ordinary citizens to challenge their own government in court, they say.
Senate Bill 1958 passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, March 24.
If it becomes law, it would repeal a 2018 statute that made it easier for Tennesseeans to challenge the constitutionality of a law or government action in court.
Under the new bill, that right goes away. To challenge a law in state court, a citizen would again need to show that their own rights were directly threatened, which was the standard that existed before 2018.
The change has drawn opposition from an unusual mix of groups.
Gun rights organizations, including the Tennessee Firearms Association, argue the 2018 law is the reason a Gibson County attorney was able to win a landmark ruling against the state last year. Abortion rights advocates argue it is one of the few tools available to challenge laws that affect them.
Both sides are fighting to keep it.
A Ruling Close to Home.
Gibson County attorney Stephen Hughes, a constituent in Stevens’s District 24, filed suit in Gibson County Chancery Court in February 2023, challenging two state gun laws he argued violated the Tennessee Constitution.
One made it a criminal offense to carry a firearm with the intent to go armed, effectively making the exercise of a constitutional right a crime unless a permit holder could prove otherwise after the fact.
The other banned carrying certain weapons in public parks.
When the state tried to have the case thrown out, the court used the 2018 statute as the reason the suit could move forward at all. On August 22, 2025, a unanimous three-judge panel declared both laws unconstitutional. The state appealed. That appeal is still pending.
Roughly four months after that ruling, Stevens introduced SB 1958.
The Debate.
Supporters of the bill, including the Tennessee Attorney General’s office, say the 2018 law has been used by outside advocacy groups to bury the state in costly litigation over political disagreements rather than genuine constitutional violations.
Solicitor General Matt Rice told the committee on Tuesday that six attorneys spent two straight weeks reviewing documents in a single abortion case. He said his office carries roughly 13,000 active cases at any given time.
“We’ve had outside groups that are coming in and they’re making policy disagreements, essentially, and they’re taking those policy disagreements and they’re putting them in the court system,” Rice said.
Opponents of SB 1958 argue that repealing the statute shifts the burden onto ordinary citizens, who would have to wait until a law was enforced against them before they could challenge it. In some cases, that means risking arrest first.
The Bipartisan Opposition.
During the committee hearing, Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis asked Rice whether anti-gun groups could use the same statute to challenge Tennessee’s gun laws, including permitless carry.
Rice said yes.
The Tennessee Firearms Association made the same point in written opposition to the bill, arguing that SB 1958 would narrow the path to court for gun owners just as much as for anyone else.
“This is not routine legislative housekeeping. It is a direct challenge to the structural safeguards that protect the people from governmental overreach,” the organization wrote in a news release in late February. “It is a direct attack by each supporting Legislator on the constitutional framework that defines the powers of the Legislature and the mechanism that the people established for enforcing that limited legislative authority.”
“This debate is not partisan,” they added. “It is structural. It concerns whether citizens retain a practical ability to hold lawmakers accountable to the Constitution.”
The reach of the 2018 statute extends beyond gun rights and abortion.
The ACLU of Tennessee is currently using it as the legal basis to challenge the state’s universal school voucher program, arguing the program violates the Tennessee Constitution’s education clause.
The voucher program, which directs state money to private K-12 education, has been one of the more contentious policy fights in recent years. It has drawn opposition from public school advocates across the political spectrum.
The 2018 statute was used to challenge a 2025 immigration law that made it a felony for local elected officials to vote in favor of sanctuary-related policies.
That law was settled as unconstitutional in February 2026 after the state’s own attorney general said he could make no legal argument in its defense. The legislature’s own attorneys had warned before its passage that it was constitutionally suspect.
In both cases, the 2018 statute was what opened the courthouse door before anyone faced arrest or prosecution.
What’s Next for SB 1958.
The committee voted 6-2 to send the bill to the full Senate calendar. Both no votes came from Memphis Democrats. Sen. Kerry Roberts (R) of Springfield passed rather than voting either way. The House companion bill, HB 1971, has been moving on a parallel track.
Sen. Stevens was asked by Carroll County Observer what avenue would remain available to citizens to challenge unconstitutional laws under the changes made in SB 1958. A response had not been received at the time of publication.
Stephen Hughes was also contacted for comment. A response had not been received at the time of publication.
This story will be updated once we receive a response.