Tennessee Code Title 57. Intoxicating Liquors § 57-3-205

(a) No license entitling the holder thereof to sell or deal in alcoholic spirituous beverages at retail shall be granted with respect to premises not situated within either a municipality as defined in § 57-3-101 or within a civil district of a county, which district shall have a population of thirty thousand (30,000) persons or more, according to the federal census for the year 1950 or any subsequent census, but which civil district shall not have lying either wholly or partially within its boundaries a municipality as defined in § 57-3-101.

(b) This section shall not be construed to apply to any civil district of any county of this state which county has a population of not more than one hundred seventy-eight thousand five hundred (178,500) nor less than one hundred seventy-eight thousand four hundred (178,400), according to the federal census of 1940 or any subsequent federal census.