WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): A host of legal battles are now underway across the Mid-South. Today, we look at a few of them and how they could affect you. With us again is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be with you.
BLANK: Well, first, let's talk about a big one this week. As you know, there've been several legal challenges to Tennessee's new congressional maps. This week, a coalition of Democrats and Democratic politicians dropped one of the cases in federal court. This one was the argument that there wasn't enough time to put these maps into play. Why did they back down and what's next?
SANFORD: Well, the reason they backed down is because they were really hoping to get a restraining order, either a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction at the outset to stop it after the suit was filed. Once that did not happen, now they realize that it's going to take a while to try to litigate that and it would be a moot point. So What happens now? There's still other lawsuits out there. I think there's another federal lawsuit. There certainly is a state court lawsuit in in Nashville. There are some good legal arguments there, but we are so far down the line now to the August 6th election that it looks like these three new districts are going to survive.
BLANK: Another lawsuit folks are watching: a group of Memphians are suing the state over the Memphis Safe Task Force. At least two of these plaintiffs are local activists looking out for the immigrant community. One part of this concerns a citizen's right to film the police. And central to this is what's called a Halo Law. You may remember the state recently made it a misdemeanor to stand within 25 feet of a police incident in progress. That's about the width of a residential street. And on one hand, if I were a cop, I wouldn't want five people with cell phones crowding in on me for videos while I'm trying to make an arrest. On the other, government watchdog and media groups have big concerns about this law. Why is that?
SANFORD: There is a right here for the public and the media to be a little concerned here. In public spaces, you have a right to take video as much as you want, as long as you are not impeding the execution of a legitimate search warrant or trying to arrest somebody. We have to strike a balance here, and let the public be able to do what the First Amendment gives them the right to do, but not impede law enforcement, even if the law enforcement appears to be doing something that is not proper.
BLANK: No question one of the biggest issues in America right now is data centers. In Memphis and Southaven, SpaceX, formerly xAI, has really given people reasons to say no to data centers. They suck up a lot of drinking water. xAI promises to build a water recycling plant. They backed out. Now they're back in, but do we really believe them? Then there's the electricity. They want to make their own with gas turbines that pollute the air and then make a lot of noise. There's already one lawsuit over the air pollution. Now residents of Southhaven have filed a class action lawsuit over the noise. So now Democrat-led Memphis and Republican North Mississippi both have a free market political problem on their hands. What are we hearing so far from politicians?
SANFORD: Well, for the most part from the politicians, even in Mississippi and in Tennessee, is they are all-in on these data centers because they see some economic value tied to it. I just don't see that the elected officials are really showing that they care enough about the concerns of people who live in these communities. This started, Chris, with complaints from Southwest Memphis, which is heavily African-American, and for the most part people didn't pay any attention to them. They got media attention, but for the most part, the politicians said, "You're making a big deal out of this." Now this has expanded and it's not just African-Americans in Southwest Memphis who are concerned about this. DeSoto County -- even up in Middle Tennessee -- there's some concern about this. And so now I think a lot of people are coming together even if they don't have the same political views to say that what you're doing here is posing problems and dangers for me and my living conditions. That's what's going on.
BLANK: Right, and I see that in Olive Branch, the planning commission there said no to a new data center. And as you mentioned in Middle Tennessee and Nashville communities are really looking at ways to restrict them in some ways. But I think it's interesting because our Republican legislature really doesn't like hearing no to new business. And you'll remember a few years back, Memphians did not want oil pipelines in our backyards and lawmakers said we don't have a choice in the matter. What about data centers, though? Do you think public opinion is going to make a difference here?
SANFORD: Well, I think it is depending first of all on who all are making their voices heard, how loudly they are doing it -- and it appears to be very loud right now. People don't like the noise, they don't like the pollution. They are thinking about their way of life, and how they live their lives and the destruction and the disruption that these data centers are causing. People in elected office are going to have to pay attention now because there's such a broad swath of complaining this going on.
