Mayor Ron Littlefield smiles while talking to friends in Judge Jeff Hollingsworth’s courtroom Friday. Judge Hollingsworth ruled that the August recall election will be stopped.
A judge invoked a decision he made more than a year ago — later overturned by a higher court — to stop the recall election of Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield for a second time.
Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge Jeff Hollings-worth used his October 2010 decision to stop the recall effort as the basis for his ruling Friday that it should not continue.
In the previous ruling, Hollingsworth said state law trumped the City Charter, so the 9,000 petition signatures gathered by recall groups — enough signatures under city law — weren’t enough under Tennessee law, which says more than 15,000 are needed.
An appeal was filed by Citizens to Recall Mayor Littlefield, one of the groups behind the recall effort, and the Tennessee Court of Appeals overturned Hollingsworth’s decision. The appeals court said the judge jumped the gun and should have given the Hamilton County Election Commission a chance to certify the petitions.
Speaking to a packed courtroom Friday, Hollings-worth said the appeals court never said he made the wrong determination.