Court set to decide date of election

The Tennessee Supreme Court will decide a closely watched legal dispute over the date of Nashville’s next mayoral election.

The state’s high court agreed Thursday to immediately take up an appeal that seeks to overturn a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed against Metro government challenging Nashville’s August mayoral election. The suit argues the Davidson County Election Commission violated both the Metro Charter and state law, and that a special election should take place in May.

In an order granting the plaintiff’s emergency motion for the Supreme Court to intervene, the court laid out an expedited briefing timeline that will culminate with oral arguments at the Supreme Court on April 9.

Attorneys for plaintiff Ludye Wallace, the local head of the Nashvillearea NAACP and a candidate for mayor, had petitioned for the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction — citing the “unusual public importance” of the case — after Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman dismissed the lawsuit last week.