Tennessee governor vetoes Bible bill; veto could still be overturned

CB Condez Monday, April 18, 2016

Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed the bill that would make the Bible Tennessee's official state book, but the legislature could still override his decision.

In a letter to House Speaker Beth Harwell, the governor cited the 2015 opinion written by Attorney General Herbert Slatery III, which says that making the Bible the state book would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution and Article I, § 3, of the Tennessee Constitution.

An 1859 U.S. family Bible, December 2006. | REUTERS / David Ball

Haslam wrote: "In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text. If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn't be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance. If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book."

House Bill 615/Senate Bill 1108, otherwise called the Bible Bill, received a 55-38 vote in the house of representatives and a 7-1 vote in the senate. Had the governor signed the bill into law, the Tennessee Code Annotated would be amended to include: "The Holy Bible is hereby designated as the official state book." Tennessee would then be the first state in the U.S. to make the Christian Bible its state book.

According to The Tennessean, the legislature could still reverse Haslam's decision if the house of representatives and the senate could both get majority votes in favor of the bill. Sen. Steve Southerland, the bill's senate sponsor, has reportedly taken the initiative on Thursday, saying that he would try to have the veto overridden.

"Sen. Southerland and I are prepared to move forward with a veto override and we plan to do exactly that," house sponsor Rep. Jerry Sexton said in a statement.

Those in favor of the bill say that the Bible has had a huge impact in the state, primarily in terms of finances since Bible-printing is a "multimillion-dollar industry." Those against it, however, say that the Bible would be trivialized by putting it in the same position as the state fruit, the tomato, and the state animal, the raccoon.