Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti, left, is in court defending the state’s Jim Crow operation of criminal prosecution of citizens under privilege law in a form of “invidious class discrimination,” according to Brenda Simpson, center, in court on a traffic charge with one of her friends, Pam Williams. (Photo David Tulis, AG’s office)

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Friday, June 19, 2026 — Tennessee’s attorney general is asking for 20 extra days to respond to a petition in the court of appeals intending to overthrow a long-standing state abuse — the criminal traffic stop.

Brenda Simpson, 77, of Hardin County, a woman who lives on social security and ekes out a living as sitter for the elderly, filed the appeal after a jury in neighboring Henderson County in South Tennessee convicted her of three misdemeanor traffic charges.

Miss Brenda is a member of a church, gives healthy eating lectures, has been appointed as a notary public and is a former operator and driver of a motor vehicle.

Mrs. Simpson retired from the profession of driver and operator of a motor vehicle in 2019 but has been criminally prosecuted ever since in multiple cases for using her private automobile on the public right of way.

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti assigned attorney Benjamin Barker, an overbooked staff lawyer, as nominal lead of the state’s defense, so that his office might request in good faith an extra 30 days past the original May 22 filing deadline. The rules give the state 30 days to answer the petition.

When Mr. Barker phoned Mrs. Simpson to ask for additional 30 days she did not indicate disapproval. The court for cause allowed the deadline to shift from May 22 to June 22.

A few days before the new deadline, Mr. Barker calls and asks Miss Brenda if she would object to his requesting 20 more days. Miss Brenda says she would object. So when Mr. Barker makes written notice of request on a form he must note that the appellant objects.

As the challenge is without precedent and threatens an entire extortion racket approved by all the courts and the state’s 18,000 lawyers, it is certain that more than just Mr. Barker‘s two eyes are poring over the challenge.

Unprecedented insight

Her suit is without precedent in state legal history. It would overthrow an institutional form of abuse by the state against 7 million Tennesseans. Criminal traffic stops are the largest supporting root of the remaining elements of Jim Crow race and class legislation in the state. The system is upheld by a legal fiction that judges, in their secret Tennessee judicial conferences, have agreed to maintain as against constitutional liberty, clear law and pro se defendants.

Mrs. Simpson says that her conviction in Henderson County by jury on three purported traffic “crimes“ is improper and a form of “invidious class discrimination” because driving and operating motor vehicle constitute a privilege. If driving and operating a motor vehicle constitute a privilege, like in other privileges, licensees have a right to be accused civilly under the department of safety pursuant to the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies.

In all the state’s privileges, when an allegation is made of unprofessional conduct, or misconduct or misuse of the privilege, the accusation is heard in the first court, which is usually a board, commission or department that oversees the privilege and regulates entry into the protected state-owned occupation.

The department of safety since the passage of the driver license law in 1938 has offloaded responsibility for administration of the privilege onto the state’s 95 counties. Counties are not equipped to administer the law and so have used criminal police power to administer what the law envisions as economic police power administration through the department of safety under the uniform administrative procedures act.

If the court agrees with Mrs. Simpson, criminal prosecution statewide would come to an end, the department of safety would have to sharply curtail its ambitious regulation of the entirety of the motoring public, hire hearing officers to serve in the state’s 95 counties and join in the death of the court-enforced pretense that all travel is commercial subject to the department of safety.

“It would deprive local municipalities of a huge revenue stream they have historically relied on to balance their budget,” says Christopher Sapp, midstate bureau chief for NoogaRadio Network.

“Money is going to prevail because special interests prevail, and I don’t know that the judiciary will have the wherewithal to come in on the right decision.”

The fighting and mercy reporter at GiveSendGo

David runs a personal nonprofit fighting and mercy ministry. He thanks you for checks sent directly to c/o 10520 Brickhill Lane, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. Also at GiveSendGo at the link above.