Revoke Section 11-3

Smyrna has a law outlawing businesses that use supernatural powers under the guise of fortunetelling. A recent lawsuit in Tennessee brought to mind that not all laws are legal...but they do try to keep us Brentwood-lite.

CHAPTER 3
FORTUNE TELLING, ETC.
SECTION
11-301. Fortune telling, etc.
11-302. Violation and penalty.
11-301. Fortune telling, etc. It shall be unlawful for any person to conduct the business of, solicit for, or ply the trade of fortune teller, clairvoyant, hypnotist, palmist, phrenologist, or other mystic endowed with supernatural powers. (1991 Code, § 11-234, modified)
11-302. Violation and penalty. A violation of this chapter shall subject the offender to a penalty under the general penalty provision of this code. Each day a violation shall be allowed to continue shall constitute a separate offense.

Now that lawsuit is in East Ridge Tennessee and already the judge has ruled in a way for the fortune teller.

A federal judge in East Tennessee has blocked East Ridge from enforcing a ban on fortunetellers, hours after a woman filed a lawsuit that says the ordinance violates her free speech rights.

The court order signed Friday by U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier granted relief sought in a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Candice Wohlfeil, a disabled grandmother who describes herself as a "spiritualist."

The restraining order allows Wohlfeil to reopen the booth where she had been reading tarot cards for three years before the city threatened a fine that forced her to shut down

I think that the town council might want to change or drop the law before we end up in a lawsuit. This area already has seen at least one suit.

In 2004, a federal judge in Nashville struck down a ban on fortunetelling in Dickson.

Smyrna tax payers should not have to risk paying to defend a lawsuit that is obviously going to be lost.

I don't believe in 'supernatural powers but if you want to spend $10 to have some cards shown to you I say go for it...but I will laugh at you behind your back. Honest!

Not chicken Wednesday - A smile on my face

I recently was looking at some property that was cheap and my wife and I thought of purchasing it. After our agent showed us the property we drove off and did some running around town. We then decided to drive by again and look at the area a bit more.

The neighbor in the next house was out and we paused and talked to him/her. I asked how the neighborhood was and as we were talking I noticed in his/her backyard a small pen and 3 or so chickens in it. I smiled and exclaimed "you got chickens!". He/she put on a sheepish smile and said "yeah! A few". I told him/her I was also thinking of getting some chickens if we bought the property...if the neighbors did not mind because it was technically against codes.

He/she just smiled and said "I've had no complaints".

It makes me feel good to know that a certain amount of lawlessness is rampant in our town and being a good neighbor is not the same as following the regulations.

Repealing a law

Our town just a short time ago went through a long and protracted fight to try to change the alcohol package laws. A very public display of how hard it is to change laws on certain hot issues.

I asked myself a few weeks ago a simple question. How hard would it be to change a foolish and non-threatening law? Not liqueur or anything "adult" in nature, but one of the many laws that I feel are small, and simple not something we should have controlling us.

My Smyrna Am column for this week, "Let's 'unpass' some silly laws", talks about the issue of laws that are not needed for the "health and welfare" of our town, and are on the books for no discernible reason.

I noticed that at the end of proposed ordinances here in Smyrna, they attach the phrase "health and welfare of the Town of Smyrna requiring it". Well, I would not want to be against the health and welfare of our town, would I?

Smyrna just recently finished the recodification of our town codes. They made numerous changes, and added a few ordinances to our town codes. I just don't remember them doing one thing. I don't remember them fully dropping any codes.

No one said "This law has not one darn thing to do with the health and welfare of our town" and then voted it out of the codes. If codes are passed for the health and welfare of Smyrna, then if we find they have nothing to do with it, then are they dropped? You may not like the answer.

Have you heard of any law totally being dropped, not modified, but wholly removed from a municipalities ordinances in recent history?

To get a code added to the ordinances of our town requires 4 people on the council to vote for it. 4 people to make a law, but as the package liqueur law fight shows, it takes thousands upon thousands to repeal or strike down one.

Now I'm wanting to try something small. I want to see how hard it is, and the reaction from the council, to strike a law from the books. In the recodification process many changes were made by the council, and the voices of the people during the last meetings got a few changes made.

I have decided to try to get a law removed. Not a specific one, but one I'm asking people to choose for me.

Thus I am going to ask you for help. The city codes of Smyrna are now online at the town's main Web page, townofsmyrna.org. Go and look through the city laws and e-mail me one or two that you feel have no place in our town. Ones that if they were unpassed, would not leave us worse off.

I hope I get at least a few emails, from the newspaper or from here with some good examples.

A fine example of what I am talking about can best be shown here.



Now I asked this question in the Smyrna AM.

Yes. Even if you are 'endowed with supernatural powers' as the codes say, you cannot attempt to make a living with them. What does our town have against its supernatural brethren?

Would Smyrna be worse off if this law is removed from the books?

There are many laws that have nothing to do with the classical view of what a government is allowed to do under the enumerated powers given to them. Time to try to roll one back in a rather public display. let's see if the ordinances are stronger then the reality of their worthlessness.