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Trump Deploying National Guard to Memphis Called 'Cruel Intimidation Tactic'
“When military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,” said the head of the ACLU's National Security Project.
Sep 16, 2025
Leaders at the ACLU on Tuesday joined other rights advocates and elected Democrats in condemning US President Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard to Memphis with a Monday order he signed beside Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
“When military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, in a statement.
“President Trump may want to normalize armed forces in our cities, but no matter what uniform they wear, federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution and have to respect our rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process," Shamsi continued. "State and local leaders must stay strong and take all lawful measures to protect residents against this cruel intimidation tactic.”
While Lee expressed his gratitude to Trump for the order, some other elected officials in Tennessee have spoken out since Trump previewed his plans for Memphis on "Fox & Friends" last Friday.
The Associated Press reported on local opposition Monday:
“I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young told a news conference Friday while acknowledging the city remained high on too many “bad lists.”
Young has also said that now the decision is made, he wants to ensure he can help influence the Guard’s role. He mentioned possibilities such as traffic control for big events, monitoring cameras for police and undertaking beautification projects.
At a news conference Monday, some local Democrats urged officials to consider options to oppose the deployment. Tami Sawyer, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk, said the city or county could sue.
State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86), whose district includes parts of the city, declared, “We need poverty eradication, not military occupation!”
Denouncing Trump's targeting of Memphis on MSNBC, Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said that "having the National Guard here is unnecessary and it is a stunt. It's just a Trump show, to show his power and his force."
"I think this may be the first representation of his changing the Department of Defense to the Department of War, because he likes to put the National Guard at his direction, as his being the great warrior, into cities and going to war," he added.
According to a White House fact sheet, Trump's memorandum tasks Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with requesting Lee "make Tennessee National Guard units available to support public safety and law enforcement operations in Memphis," and further directs Hegseth to "coordinate with state governors to mobilize National Guard personnel from those states to support this effort."
The order also "establishes a Memphis Safe Task Force tasked with ending street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent, including by coordinating closely with state and local officials in Tennessee, Memphis, and neighboring jurisdictions to share information, develop joint priorities, and maximize resources to make Memphis safe and restore public order."
🪡Governor Bill Lee, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Rep. David Kustoff, and Sen. Brent Taylor have chosen fear-mongering and authoritarianism over real solutions. They voted to gut healthcare and food security from Memphians. Sending troops will not fix the failures they created.
— Indivisible Memphis (@indivisiblememphis.bsky.social) September 14, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Trump has already deployed the National Guard to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, California, and threatened to do so in Chicago, Illinois, where his deadly "Operation Midway Blitz" targeting immigrants is already underway.
"Expanding military involvement into US civilian law enforcement is dangerous and unwarranted," Tanya Greene, US program director at Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday. "The Trump administration's continued deployment of military forces in cities with populations primarily comprised of people of color, like Memphis, risks exacerbating violence against immigrants, unhoused people, and poor people in general."
"While communities desperately need food, affordable housing, and healthcare," she added, "hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on these deployments."
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Bishop Barber Leads Nashville 'Moral Monday' Rally Ahead of Vote to Arm Teachers
"It's simply insane to watch our children get killed and look to guns for an answer," the Poor People's Campaign co-chair said, criticizing a bill that would let faculty members carry firearms in schools.
Apr 17, 2023
As Tennessee's Republican-controlled House of Representatives prepared to vote on a bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in schools, hundreds of faith leaders and other demonstrators rallied outside the state Capitol in Nashville to protest gun violence and demand lawmakers enact firearm control legislation.
Led by Bishop William Barber II, the "Moral Monday" rally preceded debate by Tennessee state lawmakers over H.B. 1202, which would empower faculty members with enhanced carry permits to carry concealed handguns on school grounds, including in classrooms.
"Have these deaths scared us to life yet?"
Participants in the Moral Monday march carried mock caskets and an urn representing victims of last month's mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, in which three 9-year-old children and three adults were murdered. Other demonstrators carried signs with messages including "Faith without action is dead" and "Every day, 120 people in America are killed with guns."
"Have these deaths scared us to life yet?" Barber asked the audience gathered at McKendree United Methodist Church in downtown Nashville. "It's simply insane to watch our children get killed and look to guns for an answer."
\u201cRIGHT NOW: Tennessee Students Demand Action leaders are marching to the State Capitol with students, @MomsDemand volunteers, and #MoralMondays activists to protest a dangerous bill to arm teachers in the state. Watch live: https://t.co/gA59foi92z\u201d— Students Demand Action (@Students Demand Action) 1681761391
"It's never about just one issue," the Repairers of the Breach and Poor People's Campaign co-chair continued. "You are here today and you care about banning assault weapons and dealing with guns. You can't say you care about that and you're willing to be on the frontline about that, but you're not on the frontline about voter suppression."
Monday's demonstration came nearly two weeks after Tennessee Republican state lawmakers voted to expel Reps. Justin Jones (D-52) and Justin Pearson (D-86) for interrupting a floor session to demand legislative action on gun control. Both lawmakers were subsequently reinstated by municipal councils; days after returning to the House, Pearson introduced legislation that would tighten firearm ownership rules.
\u201cToday on the House floor, we\u2019ll be voting on HB 1202 to allow teachers to carry guns in schools. Is this really the direction we want to go as a state\u2014 more guns in schools? This is an irresponsible response to school shootings and will not keep students safe. This is madness.\u201d— Rep. Justin Jones (@Rep. Justin Jones) 1681738639
Bill Lee, Tennessee's Republican governor and a staunch Second Amendment supporter, surprised many observers by signing an April 11 executive order strengthening background checks for firearm purchases. Lee—whose wife lost her best friend in the Covenant School shooting—also advocated for a so-called "red flag" law that would empower authorities to remove guns from people deemed dangerous.
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'See You in Court,' Say Rights Groups After Tennessee Bans Care for Trans Youth
"We will not allow this dangerous law to stand," the ACLU and Lambda Legal vowed after Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the gender-affirming healthcare ban into law.
Mar 02, 2023
A trio of civil rights groups on Thursday said they will sue after Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ignored pleas from human rights and health experts and signed a bill banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth—a move that came on the same day the governor also approved legislation criminalizing public drag shows.
Under S.B. 1—introduced by state Sen. Jack Johnson (R-23), the same lawmaker behind the public drag ban—transgender minors undergoing hormone therapy or taking prescribed puberty blockers as of July 1, 2023 will be cut off from such care in Tennessee after March 31, 2024. Trans youth not receiving gender-affirming care by July 1 will be barred from doing so in the state.
Tennessee joins Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah in outlawing or restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth—and, in the case of Alabama, anyone under age 19. Federal judges have blocked Alabama and Arkansas from implementing their bans. Meanwhile this year, at least 24 states have introduced legislation to prohibit or restrict such care.
Lambda Legal—which along with the ACLU and ACLU of Tennessee announced its intent to sue—accused Lee and Republican lawmakers of "taking away the freedom of families of transgender youth to seek critical healthcare" and "putting the government in charge of making vital decisions traditionally reserved to parents in Tennessee."
"They've chosen fearmongering, misrepresentations, intimidation, and extremist politics over the rights of families and the lives of transgender youth in Tennessee."
"We will not allow this dangerous law to stand," the groups said in a joint statement. "Certain politicians and Gov. Lee have made no secret of their intent to discriminate against youth who are transgender or their willful ignorance about the lifesaving healthcare they seek to ban."
"Instead, they've chosen fearmongering, misrepresentations, intimidation, and extremist politics over the rights of families and the lives of transgender youth in Tennessee," the groups added. "We are dedicated to overturning this unconstitutional law and are confident the state will find itself completely incapable of defending it in court. We want transgender youth to know they are not alone and this fight is not over."
\u201cBREAKING: Tennessee Governor Bill Lee just signed into law a ban on all forms of gender-affirming care for trans people under 18. We're suing.\n\nTennessee \u2014 we'll see you in court.\u201d— ACLU (@ACLU) 1677791360
Ivy Hill, director of gender justice for the Campaign for Southern Equality, said in a statement after the bill passed that "my heart is breaking for transgender youth all across the country and throughout the South."
"We've known for years that it's never been easy to access gender-affirming care in states like Tennessee and the passage of this bill will only make it harder," they added. "But the trans and queer community across the South will do what we've always done: come together, support each other, and chart new systems that help people live authentic, thriving lives where they know they are loved and supported."
Dr. Allison Stiles, a Memphis physician, said that "this bill, I feel, was born out of fearmongering—out of false rhetoric that we are doing sex-change operations on our children."
"The hate has grown, and we now have a bill that could get parents arrested for taking their gender-dysphoric child to the physician, and their physicians for taking care of them," she asserted.
"There are at least four human beings that I have touched with my hands who are this side of the grave because of the gender-affirming care."
"Just to throw in a little science here... there are four independent aspects to our sexuality," Stiles added. "Our genetics—which could be XX, XO, XY, XXY, XYY—there is our outward appearance, our gender identity, and our sexual preference. The XX and XY fetus are identical, actually, until six weeks of gestation."
Proponents of gender-affirming care noted it saves lives.
"There are at least four human beings that I have touched with my hands who are this side of the grave because of the gender-affirming care," Rev. Dawn Bennett of the Table Nashville, a faith group that centers the LGBTQ+ community, recently asserted.
\u201cAny person at risk of being affected by these restrictions on gender-affirming care should reach out to https://t.co/79KIQtz5zD or https://t.co/zp5TRXGsU3.\u201d— ACLU of Tennessee (@ACLU of Tennessee) 1677795133
According to the ACLU, Republican lawmakers in more than 20 states are trying to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth—and in some cases, even adults.
Lee also signed a bill on Thursday making Tennessee the first state to criminalize public drag shows. The governor signed the measure amid allegations of hypocrisy following the revelation that he dressed in drag at least once while in high school in the 1970s.
"Drag is not a threat to anyone. It makes no sense to be criminalizing or vilifying drag in 2023," Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, a professor of culture and gender studies at the University of Michigan who has performed in drag, told the Associated Press.
"It is a space where people explore their identities," La Fountain-Stokes continued. "But it is also a place where people simply make a living. Drag is a job. Drag is a legitimate artistic expression that brings people together, that entertains, that allows certain individuals to explore who they are and allows all of us to have a very nice time. So it makes literally no sense for legislators, for people in government, to try to ban drag."
\u201c@TheTNHoller @GovBillLee I wonder if he was a minor when he dressed in drag? If so, how did his parents allow it?\u201d— The Tennessee Holler (@The Tennessee Holler) 1677531691
Other GOP-run states—including Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, and Oklahoma—are considering similar drag bans.
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