The supreme court denied my petition because there hasn’t been a ruling on it in chancery, and no notice of appeal. It is a court of appeals, after all, without original jurisdiction, And the justices site State v. Irick, a 1995 case to that point.
By David Tulis / NoogaRadio 92.7 FM
But I had filed in the supreme court because of lawless inaction in Hamilton County.I filed because there was no ruling in Hamilton County. Because there was no order or writ ofMandamus, which the law requires issue immediately.
Chancery judge Pamela Fleenor set a hearing date for Dec. 2, an eternity into the future in an emergency petition. She set the hearing date before the deadline for the governor to respond had hit.
That was 4 p.m. Thursday. As I hovered at the door of the cork and master’s office, checking the file, no one from the Attorney General’s office came to enter any document into the record via a time stamp. Nothing by way of brief, objection, argument or motion.
So neither of the parties I sued have responded to my petition for writ of mandamus. They do not deny in the time allowed by state rules the claims of fact and law I make in the public interest as state of Tennessee (in this case, I am state of Tennessee “on relation,” as the law says).
Seeing that both respondents are in default, there is no need for a hearing of any kind, only that the writ issue. The writ will command these state or county employees to obey the black-letter law.
What can the malefactors say? They have no words now, and will have no words Dec. 2. My demand will be to Judge Fleenor: Issue the writ.
It is an emergency, and mandamus is peremptory, brooks no hesitation and no alternative.
That the supreme court took my petition and filed it, even though they knew it was not based on an order in a lower court, is unusual. I filed it with the high court because of neglect and misgovernment in chancery, and alleged that Judge Fleenor is denying equity and justice by not telling the governor and Becky Barnes to obey the law.
