The Nashville Metro Council may have overstepped its bounds when it voted not to allow Morgan Wallen's This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen to have an exterior sign bearing its name, according to a prominent Nashville attorney.
On Tuesday (May 21), the council voted to reject plans to display Wallen's 20-foot outdoor sign at the six-story venue, which is scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend. Only three members voted in favor of the point, while 30 members voted against it. Four council members were absent. Some council members cited Wallen's past controversial incidents as reasons for rejecting the sign.
Signage requests for exterior building signs overhanging public property are required to receive council approval. “I don't want to see a billboard with the name of a person who throws chairs off balconies and who makes racist slurs,” said at-large council member Delishia Porterfield. according to The Tennessean.
“Sir. Wallen is a fellow East Tennessean. He gives us all a bad name,” added District 14 City Councilman Jordan Huffman. “His comments are hateful. His actions are harmful.”
However, such a decision is a case of government overreach, says the lawyer: “You cannot as a government take negative action against something someone said. The Council was deadlocked. It violates the First Amendment to say, “You used the N-word, so you can't put your name on a building.”
Porterfield refers to Wallen's use of a racial slur in January 2021 that was captured on video, as well as his most recent arrest on April 7, when he was taken into custody on April 7 for allegedly throwing a chair off his six children's roof Eric Church. -story Chief's bar in downtown Nashville. Wallen was charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. Wallen is expected to appear in court in Nashville in August.
Wallen's Bar and Restaurant, located at 107 4th Ave. N., next to the Ryman Auditorium just off Nashville's Lower Broadway, is a collaboration between Wallen and TC Restaurant Group, which licensed his name for the project. TC Restaurant Group is also behind other celebrity bars in downtown Nashville, including Luke Bryan's 32 Bridge Food + Drink and Jason Aldean's Kitchen + Rooftop Bar.
The next step, the lawyer says, is for TC Restaurant Group to take action in federal or administrative court against the Council. “[TC Restaurant Group] has purchased the right to use [Wallen’s] name,” says the lawyer. “Basically the city has taken that piece of property away from them. They cannot do this without due process of law.”
A spokesman for Wallen declined to comment on the board's decision, as did Wallen's manager. TC Restaurant Group representatives declined to comment, adding only that the company is “focused on opening This Bar.”
Additional reporting by Melinda Newman.
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