TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on May 19, 2023

Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins ruled Thursday that two Memphis mayoral candidates can continue their campaigns, citing a 1996 ballot referendum that eliminated the five-year residency requirement. Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner and Memphis NAACP President Van Turner sued the Shelby County Election Commission over the requirement that candidates must have lived in Memphis for at least five years to be eligible. The Commercial Appeal quotes Jenkins’ ruling, saying, "The court finds and concludes it does not find any ambiguity at all … rather the reading is quite simple on its face, particularly when read in its proper context which retains the integrity of the ordinance without adding or taking away from it. That is to say, the mayoral qualification clause is dependent on the qualifications of the (city council members).”