HB1237 ends the ability of state regulatory and health-related boards to use race, color, ethnicity, or national origin as factors in their membership decisions. It bans race-based policies such as quotas and affirmative action on these boards, and removes older requirements that certain boards include minority representatives. The law also allows individuals to sue boards that discriminate, with a minimum of $4,000 in statutory damages and potential for additional actual or punitive damages.
The Tennessee State House of Representatives passed HB1237 on April 7, 2025 by a vote of 73 to 22. We have assigned pluses to the ayes because, while many of these regulatory and health-related boards are unconstitutional to begin with, state governments should not prop up one group over another based on race or ethnicity. Such policies embrace equity over equality—undermining the foundational American principle that all individuals are to be treated equally under the law. Race-based preferences constitute reverse discrimination and racism and conflict with the fundamental principle expressed in the Declaration of Independence: “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Additionally, efforts to elevate or exclude individuals based on race—whether through segregation, quotas, or affirmative action—have always undermined justice and fostered division rather than unity.
