Tennessee Expanding Lifetime Order of Protection Bill

In 2021, an idea that Nikki Goeser had became law in Tennessee. Before that law, an order of protection only lasted for one year. Each year, the person who wanted to be protected had to go back to court with some new evidence to get the protection order renewed for another year. Nikki’s law changed it so that if the person committed one of a particular set of felonies, the victim could get a lifetime order of protection. On August 24, 2023, the Tennessee State House voted unanimously to expand the number of violations qualifying for that lifetime order of protection. The comments by Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) and state representatives Michele Carringer (R-Knoxville) and Joe Towns (D-Memphis) were very powerful. They mentioned Nikki and why what happened to her had motivated the bill.