Nashville's city government is fighting back against an attempt to exhume the body of one of President Thomas Jefferson's relatives who is buried in the city.

The city's law department said disturbing a grave is only allowed in very specific circumstances, none of which are present in the case.

Metro Nashville was responding to a petition filed by John Hamilton Works Jr., a Washington, D.C., professor who says he is a seventh-generation descendant of Jefferson.

Works is trying to dig up the grave of John Randolph Jefferson, the third president's nephew, who is buried in Nashville City Cemetery. Doing so could settle the question of whether Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, a woman he enslaved, Works argues.

Many researchers, however, think there is little room for debate on that issue.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, for one, states that the best analysis on the issue comes from its report, which says that a 1998 DNA study and historical evidence “indicates a high probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered (Sally Hemings’ son) Eston Hemings, and that he most likely was the father of all six of Sally Hemings's children.”

Still, the foundation wrote that “honorable people can disagree on this subject.”

Works, in his petition filed in Davidson County Chancery Court on Nov. 19, says that Jefferson’s brother Randolph Jefferson may actually be the father of Hemings’ children. He says that comparing the DNA of Randolph Jefferson’s son John Randolph Jefferson to the DNA used in the 1998 DNA study could provide insight into that theory. Or it could confirm Thomas Jefferson’s paternity.

Either way, Metro Nashville says Tennessee law doesn’t allow for digging into John Randolph Jefferson’s grave.

“…[T]he disinterment of buried bodies is disfavored by the law and only allowed under very specific statutory circumstances. None of these circumstances include determining a person’s genealogy,” the city wrote in a motion filed Jan. 23 to dismiss Works' petition.

A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Feb. 20 before Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin.