Posted on 06/21/2006 3:48:42 PM PDT by SmithL
A federal judge said today he would cut through the confusion surrounding the Knox County charter by asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to rule on the charter's validity as soon as possible.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge James H. Jarvis said he wants the state Supreme Court to settle the matter once and for all so he can hear a lawsuit challenging the county's adult business ordinance.
Though a federal judge, Jarvis can ask the state's highest court to intervene to settle a matter of state law that is crucial to the federal lawsuit.
Under court rules, Jarvis can send a "certified question" to the state Supreme Court. The court can refuse to answer, but such a decision would be rare.
"It's a perfect question to be certified," Jarvis said.
Jarvis has given attorneys for the adult bookstores one week to amend their lawsuit to reflect the recent decision invalidating the county's charter. He said he will then immediately draft a question for the state Supreme Court to answer and send it to the high court.
Knox County Chancellor John Weaver ruled the charter invalid on June 9. County Commissioner John Schmid filed notice he would appeal Weaver's ruling on Monday, while Knox County asked Weaver for extra time so a newly formed committee could revise the charter.
Jarvis' action promises to leapfrog those legal maneuvers and prompt a quicker answer from the state's highest court.
At today's hearing, Knox County Law Director Mike Moyers asked Jarvis to postpone the adult bookstore case until the revisions to the charter are completed.
"I'm not conceding that it is invalid," Moyers said of both the charter and the ordinance. "But I think there are serious questions. I'm not going to pretend. I really and truly believe ... it would be hard to sustain the validity of that ordinance if we are not a charter county."
Jarvis responded that the same folks who were proposing to "fix" the charter mess were the same people who made a mess of it to begin with.
"Whose fault is this?" he asked Moyers. "The people don't know anything about these things. These officials, who are supposed to look out for the people, sit around and want to keep their jobs as long as possible. I want to get this settled once and for all."
Weaver would have to agree to the county's request for extra time and voters would have to approve any amendments to the charter. That would mean putting the case on hold until after the November election.
Instead, Jarvis said he would take the charter question to the state Supreme Court.
Weaver ruled the charter "incomplete, invalid and ineffective." In his ruling, Weaver said the charter doesn't outline the all the responsibilities of county government as required by state law. He also said the term limits provision adopted in 1994 was too broad and noted that the charter was never filed with the Tennessee secretary of state's office.
Knox County Election Administrator Greg Mackay sent a copy of the charter to the secretary of state's office on Tuesday — 18 years after county officials were supposed to register the document.
In the case before Jarvis, two adult bookstores filed a federal lawsuit against Knox County last year arguing that the ordinance violates their constitutional rights. Town & Country Bookstore on Clinton Highway and Knoxville Adult Video Superstore on Lovell Road say the law restricts how they do business.
County Commission passed the ordinance in March 2005. The ordinance was passed under the sole authority of the county charter, which Weaver ruled is invalid.
The ordinance requires that owners and employees be licensed by the county and the application process include a background check to ensure that owners and employees haven't been convicted of certain crimes in the past five years.
The ordinance also changes the hours of operations for such businesses to 8 a.m.-midnight Monday through Saturday. The stores also must close on Sundays and government holidays.
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