Charter gets day in court - Supreme Court to hear arguments for and against validity of document

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 9/6/6 | AMIE SATTERFIELD

[SmithL]

Knox County's entire form of government is being put to the ultimate legal test today.

The state Supreme Court will hear this afternoon arguments for and against the validity of Knox County's charter, the guiding force for the way citizens in Knox County are governed.

Also on the Supreme Court platter will be the validity of an amendment to the charter that created term limits. Up in the air is whether the high court will go farther and opine as to which officeholders those term limits would apply if valid.

As rare as the issue before it is, it is rarer still that the justices are hearing it now.

It has only been a few months since Knox County Chancellor John Weaver struck down the charter as invalid. Normally, the case would slowly wind its way from Weaver's court to a midlevel appellate court to a bid by the loser for state Supreme Court review.

But amid much public angst and official predictions of doom and chaos - and a not-so-gentle push from a federal judge - the state's top justices opted to exercise their "reach-down" authority. It is a power limited under the law to a handful of cases considered to be of unusual public importance.

What put Knox County's government under attack was a state Supreme Court ruling earlier this year involving term limits and Shelby County's charter.

Until that decision, a 1994 Knox County charter amendment approved by a majority of voters and limiting officeholders to two terms of office had been ignored. Citing an opinion from the state Attorney General's Office, Knox County's legal eagles had insisted the amendment was unenforceable.

Shelby County's charter is a kissing cousin to Knox County's version, so the state Supreme Court ruling backing up Shelby County's term limit amendment prompted Knox County's legal powers-that-be to do an about-face, arguing term limits should be enforced.

Five term-limited county commissioners - Phil Guthe, Diane Jordan, John Griess, Billy Tindell and David Collins - responded with a lawsuit that led to Weaver's June ruling, which legally sliced and diced not only term limits but the charter itself.

But don't expect today's arguments before the state Supreme Court, which is sitting in Knoxville, to be a showdown between the Knox County Law Director's Office and those five commissioners.

There will be at least nine parties to this legal action:

• Knox County's newly appointed law director, John Owings, will be arguing to save the charter and the term-limits amendment. To do so, however, he is sacrificing the argument that so-called constitutional officeholders also are term-limited. It is an argument popular with voters who supported term limits and being pushed by folks like County Mayor Mike Ragsdale but legally flawed, Owings contends in a legal brief.

• Attorneys John Valliant and Arthur Seymour will argue on behalf of the term-limited five commissioners that Weaver got it right. The Supreme Court justices should strike down the charter and term limits, and Knox County should draw up a new charter that passes legal muster, they contend.

• Officeholders like Sheriff Tim Hutchison, Trustee Mike Lowe and County Clerk Mike Padgett will fight to save their jobs from term limits, not worrying over the charter. The way these officeholders see it, only Ragsdale and Knox County Commission are governed by the charter and, therefore, term limits.

• Cathy Quist and Martha Phillips, both of whom serve as elected clerks for various state courts, are staying out of the charter fight. But they want the high court justices to declare them exempt from term limits.

• Brooke Thompson, who heads the state Election Commission, will ask the high court to set some legal boundaries for a follow-up election should the justices back term limits. He is taking no position on the validity of the charter or he term limits amendment. He also won't offer a legal opinion on whether constitutional officeholders are exempt from term limits.

• County Commissioner John Schmid is asking the court to back the charter and term limits. Unlike the law director's office, however, Schmid also wants the high court to rule that term limits apply to all officeholders, not just commissioners and Ragsdale.

  Oral arguments begin today at 1 p.m. The court has allotted a total of two hours for the hearing. The justices have promised to rule promptly, but it will be weeks, if not a few months, before a written ruling is handed down.

[SmithL]

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