On behalf of five plaintiffs, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against Tennessee charging their law establishing criminal and civil penalties against groups conducting voter registration violate the Constitution. An earlier lawsuit brought by the NAACP and three other organizations charged that the law would “violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and have a chilling effect on the exercise of fundamental First Amendment rights.” (The First Amendment Encyclopedia, May 3, 2019, by Deborah Fisher)
The new law would exact penalties for mistakes on voter registration application they submit to the state with fines of up to $2,00 in each county where a violation occurred. Groups turning in incomplete forms would face penalties of up to $10,000. The law also sets a 10 day window to turn in forms making hard to rectify errors. (Campaign Legal Center, May 9, 2019, by Urja Mittal)