17 S.W.2d 926 | Tenn. | 1929
This is a suit challenging the constitutionality of Chapter 149 of the Private Acts of 1927, applicable by population classification to Benton County, providing for the election of the County Superintendent of Public Schools and the County Board of Education by the legal voters of the County. It is insisted that the bill violates Section 8, Article 1, of the Constitution, as construed by this Court recently in Smith v. Sells,
The Chancellor was of opinion that the changes made by the act now before us were substantial, not colorable merely, and he dismissed the bill. In this we think he was correct.
Here at least two changes are made which go to the organic constitution of the Board, in that, (1) the terms of office are changed from seven to two years, and (2) the members and Superintendent are elected by the legal voters of the County, and not, as theretofore, by the County Court. The second of these is clearly fundamental, affecting the source of authority of the officers. In Haggard v. Gallien,