By Jedidiah McKeehan

I know the question that has been burning in your mind.  It’s like an itch that you have needed scratched for a long time.  Well I am here to answer your question and scratch that itch.  What is the question that has been gnawing in your mind and keeping you up at night?  What does Tennessee law say (if anything) about nudist colonies?

I will tell you that I had no idea myself that Tennessee legislators had gone to the trouble of making a law that address nudist colonies, but they have actually done just that.  I would imagine this is a law that does not get brought up much or discussed, but it does exist.

Tennessee Code Annotated section 36-6-304 states, “No person who has been granted visitation rights to a child shall, during the child’s minority, expose the child to any facility organized or operated as a nudist colony without the consent of the custodial parent. Any court of competent jurisdiction shall have the ability to enforce these provisions and enjoin violations of this section through the full extent of the court’s civil and criminal contempt powers.”

Okay so what is this law even saying?  Basically, this law says that if someone has visitation rights with a child, they are not allowed to expose the child to a nudist colony without the consent of the custodial parent.  When would this ever come in to play?  As best I can tell, this would happen if one parent has some visitation with a child, but the other parent is the custodial parent.  Another option might be if a grandparent has visitation rights with a child.  If the adult with visitation and not custody wants to take the child to a nudist colony, they have to get the permission of the custodial parent to do so.

This makes logical sense that something like this would have to approved by a custodial parent, but you question what situation occurred that made it necessary for legislators to draft this law, vote on it, and get it ratified in to an actual Tennessee law.

Jedidiah McKeehan is an attorney practicing in Knox County and surrounding counties.  He works in many areas, including criminal, personal injury, landlord-tenant, probate, and estate planning. Visit attorney-knoxville.com for more information about this legal issue and other legal issues.