Ezel / AG Opinions / TN
TN 21-05 May 6, 2021

What was Tennessee AG Opinion 21-05 about?

Short answer: There is no substantive opinion. The Tennessee AG's office assigned the number 21-05 to a 'Militias' opinion request in May 2021, but the office subsequently withdrew it. The PDF the AG posts at this opinion number is a one-line notice that no opinion was issued.

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This page answers the general question as of 2021. Ezel answers yours: what it means for your facts, under current Tennessee law, with citations.

Disclaimer: This page documents an Attorney General opinion number that was assigned but withdrawn. The Tennessee AG's official position on the underlying question is that no opinion was issued.
About this page: The plain-English summary, reader guidance, and Q&A below were written by Ezel based on the official AG opinion. The original opinion (linked on this page as a PDF) is the authoritative source for any reliance.
View original AG opinion (PDF)

What this entry is

The Tennessee Attorney General's official 2021 opinion list includes Opinion No. 21-05 with the subject "Militias." The PDF the AG's office posts under that number is a brief notice stating that the opinion has been withdrawn. There is no substantive analysis, no answer to the underlying question, and no statement of the question that was originally asked.

This entry exists so that researchers searching for "Tennessee AG Opinion 21-05" or for AG guidance on Tennessee militia law from 2021 can confirm what the official record shows: a number was assigned, then withdrawn, with no published reasoning. If you need to know what Tennessee law says about militias, you will not find it here. The Tennessee Code provisions on the unorganized militia, the National Guard, and the State Guard are at Tenn. Code Ann. tit. 58 and remain the operative law regardless of the withdrawal.

Why opinions get withdrawn

Withdrawals are unusual but not unheard of in state AG offices. Common reasons include:

  • The legislative or executive question that prompted the request became moot before the opinion was finalized.
  • The requester withdrew the question.
  • The AG's office concluded the question was better addressed in litigation, by the legislature, or through another forum.
  • The drafted opinion would have addressed a question the office decided was outside its formal opinion practice.

The Tennessee AG's office did not publish a reason for the withdrawal of 21-05. Nothing in the public record explains it.

Source

Original opinion text

STATE OF TENNESSEE
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

May 6, 2021

Opinion No. 21-05

Militias

No opinion posted; this opinion has been withdrawn.

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