Tennessee § 62-35-106 - Qualifications of applicants.

§ 62-35-106. Qualifications of applicants.

Each individual applicant or, if the applicant is a partnership, each partner or, if the applicant is a corporation, the qualifying agent, must: Be at least twenty-one (21) years of age; Be a citizen of the United States or a resident alien; Not have been declared by any court of competent jurisdiction incompetent by reason of mental defect or disease unless a court of competent jurisdiction has since declared the applicant competent; Not be suffering from habitual drunkenness or narcotics addiction or dependence; Be of good moral character; and Possess at least three (3) years of experience as a manager, supervisor or administrator with a contract security company or proprietary security organization; Possess at least three (3) years of experience satisfactory to the commissioner with any federal, United States military, state, county or municipal law enforcement agency; or Pass an examination to be administered at least twice annually by the commissioner, designed to measure knowledge and competence in the contract security company business. Acts 1987, ch. 436, § 6. Attorney General Opinions. The Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act (EVEA) can be read in harmony with laws requiring licensure applicants to be U.S. citizens or U.S. citizens or resident aliens and therefore did not impliedly repeal those laws. State laws requiring licensure applicants to be U.S. citizens are preempted to the extent they conflict with a federal law that limits States’ authority to determine alien eligibility for state public benefits, including professional and commercial licenses. State laws requiring licensure applicants to be U.S. citizens also violate the Equal Protection Clause because they discriminate based on alienage and would not satisfy strict scrutiny. State laws requiring licensure applicants to be U.S. citizens or resident aliens are preempted to the extent they conflict with a federal law that limits States’ authority to determine alien eligibility for state public benefits, including professional and commercial licenses. Laws requiring licensure applicants to be U.S. citizens or resident aliens do not violate the Equal Protection Clause, however, because they discriminate only against unlawful aliens and lawful aliens who are not permanent residents. Those categories of aliens are not a suspect class, and the laws at issue would likely satisfy rational basis review. The Department of Commerce and Insurance is not required to enforce the requirements that an applicant for licensure, registration, or certification be a “citizen of the United States” or a “citizen of the United States or resident alien.” OAG 18-42, 2018 Tenn. AG LEXIS 42 (9/13/2018).