Rep. Gerald McCormick said Monday he favors electing state Supreme Court judges, and he said judges who will not uphold the death penalty should be removed.
The chairman of the local legislative delegation also told the Pachyderm Club, "We should do away with lifetime-tenured judges. They work for us, not the other way around."
Rep. McCormick praised Chief Justice Mickey Barker of Signal Mountain, but said he is "the only one with common sense" on the five-member panel.
The speaker also told the club that child molestors "should be put away." He said there is "not a lot of rehabilitation" for them.
He said America "was based on one nation under God. We shouldn't be ridiculed for saying so."
Rep. McCormick, who had no opposition in the last election, said those with religious beliefs "should fight the anti-Christian and anti-religion bigotry."
He also told the group that he is opposed to history "revisionism." He said Civil War monuments and other historical markers should remain in place.
Rep. McCormick said taxes are too high - in Tennessee and elsewhere. He said taxes now consume about 40 percent of a worker's paycheck.
He said, "It is reaching the point where we can't go much higher."
He also told the club, "I have to say No to a state income tax." For one thing, he said, a state income tax is forbidden by the state constitution.