AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 39 and Title 40, relative to criminal history records.
HB2232 creates a new process allowing certain people convicted of misdemeanor offenses, and people convicted of offenses committed before November 1, 1989 that would now be misdemeanors, to petition the court to seal their criminal history records. To qualify, a petitioner must have completed all sentence requirements, paid fines and restitution, finished any incarceration or supervision, be free of pending charges, and have gone at least five years without a new conviction. The bill also requires a $500 filing fee to help cover the cost of sealing records.
The bill excludes domestic assault and DUI convictions from eligibility. If a person whose records have been sealed is later charged with a new non-traffic offense, the sealing order is temporarily rescinded; if the person is convicted, the records are unsealed, and if the case ends without conviction, the sealing order is restored. The act takes effect July 1, 2026.
The bill would add a new part to Tennessee Code Annotated Title 40 governing sealing of criminal history records and would change how certain misdemeanor convictions are treated in public records. It limits public access to eligible records while preserving access for specified government purposes, including firearms background checks, handgun carry permit decisions, vulnerable-person registry maintenance, and law-enforcement certification screening. It would affect courts, clerks, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, the Department of Health, and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate or formal support/opposition in the available materials. Based on the bill text, the measure appears designed to provide a pathway for record relief and second chances for people with older or lower-level convictions, while retaining public-safety exceptions and administrative safeguards. The inclusion of a substantial filing fee and categorical exclusions suggests an effort to balance relief with caution.
The main points of potential contention are likely to be the scope of eligibility, the exclusions for domestic assault and DUI, and the $500 fee, which could limit access for lower-income petitioners. Another likely issue is the bill’s preservation of access to sealed records for firearms permitting, law-enforcement hiring, and vulnerable-adult registry purposes, which reflects a public-safety exception that may be supported by some and viewed as narrowing the relief by others. The five-year conviction-free waiting period and automatic unsealing upon a new conviction may also be debated as either reasonable safeguards or overly restrictive conditions.