Governor Bill Lee and Attorney General Skrmetti Could Sue Lee Harris and the Shelby County Commissioners — And That’s Exactly What Donald Trump Would Do: Turn The Table on the Corrupt — Government Gangsters VI
By the Shelby County Observer Public Affairs Staff
October 22, 2025 | Shelby County, Tennessee
The title of this series — Government Gangsters — comes from current FBI Director Kash Patel’s breakthrough book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.
In that explosive work, Director Patel exposes how entrenched officials within government cloak corruption in moral language, presenting themselves as champions of justice while secretly enabling and protecting systemic lawlessness.
They are the actors of pretense — orators of ethics who privately violate every principle they invoke.
Today, that same brand of hypocrisy has found its most vivid expression not in Washington, but in Shelby County, Tennessee, under Mayor Lee Harris — a man now suing the Governor for “violating the rule of law” while presiding over a government that routinely ignores, manipulates, and weaponizes the law itself.
On October 17, 2025, Fox13 Memphis published the headline:
“Shelby County Leaders Sue Gov. Bill Lee Over National Guard Deployment in Memphis.” — FOX13 Memphis News Staff
At first glance, it looks like a standard political disagreement — local leaders opposing state authority. But a deeper look reveals something far darker: a pattern of hypocrisy, deflection, and dereliction that has come to define Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’s tenure.
A Lawsuit Built on Irony
Mayor Lee Harris, joined by Memphis City Councilman J.B. Smiley Jr., State Representatives G.A. Hardaway and Gabby Salinas, State Senator Jeff Yarbro, and County Commissioners Erika Sugarmon and Henri Brooks, filed a lawsuit against Governor Bill Lee, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, and Major General Warner Ross III, opposing the Governor’s National Guard deployment in Memphis.
That deployment was modeled directly after President Donald Trump’s Memphis Safe Task Force, which as of Tuesday afternoon, the task force said more than 1,200 arrests had been made. The task force started operations Sept. 29. Since then, stats show homicides down 50%, along with car theft and sexual assault down around 60% and the recovery of 56 missing children in less than a month. It was one of the few measurable successes in reversing violent crime trends in Shelby County.
And yet, the same officials who claim to defend “the rule of law” are suing the Governor for enforcing it — all while flouting the law themselves at every level of government.
Three Levels of Failure: Federal, State, and Local
1. Federal Level: A Sanctuary County in Violation of Federal Law
Under Lee Harris’s administration, Shelby County has been cited by federal authorities for violating national security compliance as a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” Despite federal warnings, the County continues to obstruct immigration enforcement cooperation, a direct violation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s cooperative statutes.
This failure reflects a culture of selective enforcement — where political ideology outweighs public safety and the rule of law.
2. State Level: The Tennessee Comptroller’s Historic Sanction
For the first time in Shelby County history, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury has banned Shelby County from issuing new bonds due to corruption, incompetence, and repeated failure to submit a balanced, lawful budget.
This is not a clerical oversight — it is a public indictment of leadership failure. Tennessee’s top fiscal authority has effectively declared Shelby County untrustworthy with taxpayer money.
3. Local Level: Seven Years Without an Ethics Commission
Even more alarming, Shelby County has operated seven years without a functioning Ethics Commission — a direct violation of Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 8-44-101 et seq. and 8-47-101 et seq., which require every county to maintain an active, independent ethics board.
During this period, no public ethics hearings have been held, no conflicts of interest have been reviewed, and no oversight has existed over commissioners who award contracts — many of whom now face criminal indictments and FBI scrutiny.
Potential State Action: How the Governor and Attorney General Could Sue Lee Harris and Shelby County That’s What Donald Trump Would Do
The irony of Lee Harris’s lawsuit against Governor Bill Lee is that the legal authority to sue may, in fact, flow in the opposite direction.
Both the Governor of Tennessee and the Attorney General possess statutory and constitutional authority to bring civil enforcement actions against county officials who operate in open violation of state and federal law.
In this case, the violations are not hypothetical — they are written into the record.
- Violation #1 — Sanctuary Jurisdiction Noncompliance (Federal Violation)
Under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and federal immigration enforcement laws, Shelby County’s sanctuary designation constitutes a direct obstruction of federal authority.
The Attorney General could seek an injunction or declaratory judgment compelling compliance with federal detainer cooperation and ICE coordination requirements, under 8 U.S.C. § 1373 and 28 U.S.C. § 1345 (civil action authority of the United States).
Moreover, the Governor could request a federal consent decree under 42 U.S.C. § 14141 (the “pattern or practice” provision) for systemic obstruction of law enforcement duties. - Violation #2 — Defiance of Tennessee Comptroller Mandates (State-Level Financial Breach)
The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury has already banned Shelby County from issuing bonds due to fiscal malpractice — a first in state history.
This alone provides legal grounds for the Governor or Attorney General to petition the Chancery Court for a writ of mandamus or receivership under Tenn. Code Ann. § 9-21-403, compelling compliance with budgetary law and restraining further financial misconduct.
In extreme cases, the State may move to suspend or dissolve the authority to issue public debt until corrective oversight is installed. - Violation #3 — Seven Years Without a Functioning Ethics Commission (Local Governance Breakdown)
Tennessee law is explicit: Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-47-101 et seq. requires every county to maintain an active, operating Ethics Commission.
Shelby County’s failure to do so — for seven consecutive years — places it in continuous violation of both state statute and its own charter (Shelby County Code § 2.106.3).
The Attorney General may initiate a quo warranto action under Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-35-101, questioning the legal right of current officials to hold office while violating the statutes they swore to uphold.
The Governor, meanwhile, could seek a declaratory judgment that the County is in “structural default” of its duties under the Tennessee Constitution’s Article I, § 17 (open courts and due process clause).
Immediate Legal Remedies Available
If pursued, the Governor and Attorney General could jointly:
- File for injunctive relief compelling Shelby County to reconstitute its Ethics Commission within 30 days.
- Seek a special master or fiscal monitor to oversee compliance with Comptroller directives.
- Suspend discretionary grant funding until ethics and procurement laws are reinstated.
- Refer sanctuary violations to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section under 28 U.S.C. § 535(b) for criminal review.
The Constitutional Principle at Stake
Ultimately, the question is not whether Lee Harris can sue the Governor.
The real question is how long the Governor and Attorney General will tolerate a local government that has placed itself above the law.
The Tennessee Constitution, in Article VII, Section 1, authorizes the State to ensure county officials “faithfully execute the laws of the State.”
Shelby County’s record shows precisely the opposite.
The Cost of Lawlessness
Without an Ethics Commission, Shelby County’s grant system has devolved into political patronage. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been steered to political allies and campaign donors — including one of Mayor Harris’s personal associates, later indicted for stealing millions in public funds.
Even after the indictment, Harris wrote a letter of support for the individual, defending him publicly. That same letter is now cited in multiple federal fraud investigations involving grant kickbacks and bid manipulation.
At least six federal lawsuits have been filed alleging bid rigging, favoritism, and procurement fraud, all pointing to the same pattern:
- Contracts awarded to connected insiders.
- Ethics oversight is nonexistent.
- Legal accountability was deliberately blocked by the County Attorney’s office.
State Senator Brent Taylor on Shelby County’s Collapse
State Senator Brent Taylor delivered a blistering rebuke of Mayor Lee Harris’s leadership, declaring that “Memphis and Shelby County deserve better.” Taylor noted that after seven years of Harris’s inaction, violent crime has surged, businesses have fled, and Shelby County has suffered the single largest population decline of any county in the entire nation. He emphasized that when local officials failed to protect their citizens, President Donald Trump stepped in, mobilizing federal resources and restoring order where local leadership had collapsed. “Harris was missing in action,” Taylor said.
Suing the Governor While Violating the Law
To file a lawsuit against the Governor of Tennessee — in the name of “upholding the law” — while systematically violating every level of the law within your own government is not leadership.
It is hypocrisy at its most brazen form.
It is the defining hallmark of a government gangster — a leader who weaponizes legality only when it benefits his politics, while ignoring it when it restrains his corruption.
Under 28 U.S.C. § 535(b), the U.S. Department of Justice has an affirmative duty to investigate credible allegations of local corruption.
And under Monell v. Department of Social Services and Yick Wo v. Hopkins, when a government’s misconduct becomes systemic and arbitrary, federal oversight is not optional — it is mandatory.
A Culture of Selective Law
Shelby County’s current leadership has made “the rule of law” conditional — applying it only against others, never themselves. They sue the state for exercising its lawful authority, even as they refuse to follow procurement law, transparency statutes, and constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
It is precisely this rogue culture of selective legality that has earned Lee Harris more appearances in the Government Gangsters series than any other local politician.
Not because of political affiliation — but because his record is the textbook definition of hypocrisy cloaked in virtue.
The Rule of Law Must Be One Law for All
As the Shelby County Observer has long reported, the erosion of trust in local government does not begin in the streets — it begins in the offices of those who claim to enforce justice but refuse to live by it.
Mayor Lee Harris can sue the Governor all he wants.
But until he restores the Ethics Commission, submits a lawful budget, and ceases to run a sanctuary county, the real defendants are not in Nashville.
They are sitting in the Shelby County Administration Building, under his watch, hiding behind procedure while justice waits outside the door.
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