NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nashville’s Metro Council is headed for a major downsizing after the Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday sided with the state in a long fight over how many members the body can have.
The case, Metro v. Lee, centered on a state law the General Assembly first passed in 2023 and changed in 2026. It puts a 20-member ceiling on local legislative bodies. Nashville’s council, at 40 members, is the only one in Tennessee above that line, so the ruling falls on the city alone. New district lines will have to be drawn.
Metro sued after the law passed, arguing it unfairly targeted Nashville and ran over the power state voters hold to shape their local charters. The city won the first round in a lower court, lost on appeal, and the five justices heard arguments in February. The court found that the 2026 amendments cleared away some of the legal problems and that state lawmakers do hold authority over local councils.
The 40-seat council dates to 1963, when Nashville and Davidson County merged their governments. That large size helped win voter support for consolidation, in part by easing worries about representation for Black residents.
City leaders pushed back hard. Mayor Freddie O’Connell said the council’s size was a community choice that only voters should change, and that the city will weigh its options. Vice Mayor Angie Henderson, who also serves as council president, called it a somber day for democracy and criticized the legislators and lobbyists behind the law.
Henderson and Clay Capp, who chairs the Charter Revision Committee, told members that the council’s Legislative Services Division and the Metro Legal Department will study the ruling closely. They will call a special committee session, with every council member invited, in the Council Chamber, and Capp said the charter committee will begin that discussion next week.
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