NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A bill that would have barred adults in Tennessee from smoking in a vehicle with children appears dead for the year after lawmakers voiced concerns that it gave the government too much power over citizen freedoms.
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The measure failed to clear the Senate Wednesday.
The bill was sponsored by Knoxville Republican Sen. Richard Briggs. It would have made it an offense to smoke in a vehicle with children under the age of 14, regardless of whether the windows in the car were rolled down.
Briggs cited the dangers of smoke to children in a confined space as small as a vehicle. But some lawmakers questioned whether it was too much of an overreach. Sparta Republican Sen. Paul Bailey said lawmakers couldn’t legislate the morality of Tennesseans.