Case Title: Perry v. Lawrence County Election Commission

Citation: 411 S.W.2d 538

Docket Number: 

State: tennessee

Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Date: 1967-01-12T00:00:00Z

Document:
411 S.W.2d 538 (1967) Atlas PERRY et al. v. LAWRENCE COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSION et al. Supreme Court of Tennessee. January 12, 1967. A. D. Lindsey and Noble L. Freemon, Sr., Lawrenceburg, for Atlas Perry and others. M. Arnold Peebles, Jr., and Charles A. Trost, Columbia, for Lawrence County Election Commission and others. DYER, Justice. This case presents the sole question of whether the Judge of the General Sessions Court of Lawrence County is required to be a person licensed to practice law in Tennessee. This court was created by Chapter 55, Private Acts of 1943 and the section of this Act pertinent to this issue is as follows: The constitutional requirements of the judge of this court are contained in Article 6, Section 4 of the Constitution of Tennessee as follows: The question presented is does the Legislature have authority, in addition to the qualifications required of the Judge of the General Sessions Court for Lawrence County by Section 4, Article 6 of the Constitution, to require the further qualification said judge be a person licensed to practice law in Tennessee. This case is controlled by the holding in LaFever v. Ware, 211 Tenn. 393, 365 S.W.2d 44 (1963), wherein it was said: This holding is based on the view the State of Tennessee is a government of general powers and the Constitution of Tennessee is a limitation on and not the source of the power of the people acting through their representatives, the Legislature. This view was expressed in the very early case of Bell v. Bank of Nashville, 7 Tenn. 269 (1823), wherein it was said, "the Legislature of Tennessee, like the legislature of all other sovereign states, can do all things not prohibited by the Constitution of this State or of the United States. * * *" This same view was expressed in the recent case of Frazer v. Carr, 210 Tenn. 565, 360 S.W.2d 449 (1962), wherein it was said, "To be invalid a statute must be plainly obnoxious to some constitutional provision." This requirement, by the legislature, the Judge of the General Sessions Court of Lawrence County be a person licensed to practice law in Tennessee is in no way obnoxious to any provision of our Constitution and such is a reasonable requirement. The decree of the Chancellor permanently enjoined and restrained J.P. Kimbrell, a person not licensed to practice law in Tennessee, from holding or attempting to hold the office of Judge of the General Sessions Court for Lawrence County or from assuming or performing any of the duties of same. The decree of the Chancellor is affirmed. The appellant, Atlas Perry, et al., has filed a petition to rehear correctly insisting, in our original opinion, we did not directly rule upon the following assignment of error. In LaFever v. Ware, 211 Tenn. 393, 365 S.W.2d 44 (1963), one of the issues was the constitutionality of Section 15, Chapter 35 of the Private Acts 1963, which required the judge of the General Sessions Court for White County to be a licensed attorney in this State. The court said: The petition to rehear is denied. BURNETT, C. J., CHATTIN and CRESON, JJ., and HARBISON, Special Judge, concur.