It's Hooker v. World, once again

CORRECTED 8 Aug. 2006, 5:36 p.m. -- Political gadfly and serial litigant trudges back to federal court with another lawsuit over Supreme Court appointment process

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse and E. Thomas Wood

John Jay Hooker Jr.

CORRECTED 8 Aug. 2006, 5:36 p.m.: As originally posted, this story included defendants Gov. Phil Bredesen, State Elections Supervisor Brook Thompson and Attorney General Paul Summers among those whom Hooker accuses of "unethical, unconstitutional and corrupt conduct." In fact, the complaint differentiates between those individuals, who are sued in their official capacities only, and  the various judges named in the complaint, who are accused of misconduct.

The story also stated that a special panel of judges dismissed Hooker's 1996 lawsuit over the Supreme Court election process. Although Hooker did not prevail in this case, the panel did not dismiss it.

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As his friend Muhammed Ali did at the end of his career, John Jay Hooker just keeps coming back for one more fight.

Hooker filed a lawsuit in Nashville's federal court last week demanding that the process of appointing a new justice to the Tennessee Supreme Court be halted, that the results of the August 3rd retention elections for high court seats be thrown out, and that a new election between "constitutionally qualified candidates" be held on November 4 to choose the court's justices.

Together with the complaint, Hooker has petitioned for all of the U.S. District Judges in Tennessee to recuse themselves from the case.

If it all sounds familiar, that's because Hooker filed a lawsuit in 1996 to challenge the way State Supreme Court justices are chosen by the governor and retained in office by elections. The court had to recuse itself en masse from hearing that case, and a special Supreme Court was put together to rule on it. The constitutional challenge was rejected.

The latest edition of Rocky VI -- oops, we mean, Hooker v. Everybody -- charges all of the current Tennessee Supreme Court Justices, as well as Nashville Judges Frank G. Clement Jr., and Walter Kurtz and other jurists, with "unethical, unconstitutional and corrupt conduct."

Which of the named Defendants is said to have committed which acts is unclear at this time, but the gist of the lawsuit is Hooker's claim that as a constitutionally qualified potential candidate for the Tennessee Supreme Court, he has standing and is suing over what he deems an unconstitutional retention election statute.

Every eight years, Tennessee voters can vote whether they wish to retain the services of appointed judges, as was the case last week when all the Tennessee Supreme Courts Justices were retained by the voters.

There is some question as to whether Hooker can even get the case heard. In 2004, Davidson County Judge Walter C. Kurtz attempted to TKO future Hooker filings by ruling that he must have them approved by a Circuit Court master and must pay up on an outstanding fine for filing frivilous lawsuits.

Hooker was once considered a rising star in state and even national politics. He burst onto the Tennessee political scene in 1966 with a challenge to old-guard candidate Buford Ellington for the Democratic nomination for governor. He lost in that primary but was the party's nominee in 1970, going on to lose to Republican Winfield Dunn in the general election. In 1976, Hooker entered the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, but Jim Sasser won that race and went on to serve three terms in the Senate.

Hooker's storied business career, meanwhile, has had him present at the creation of for-profit hospital giant HCA, which went on to great success, and a nationwide network of fried chicken franchises named for country comedienne Minnie Pearl, which collapsed spectacularly in 1969. His social connections have been notable as well, including his friendships with Ali and with Ross Perot, whom Hooker encouraged to run for president in 1992.

In the past decade, Hooker has run as an outsider for the governor's office (winning the Democratic nomination in 1998, but garnering only 7 percent of the vote against Phil Bredesen last week), the U.S. Senate, Congress and Davidson County Chancery Court. Many of these races have featured lawsuits against competing candidates or others he deemed to have influence over the electoral process.

In 1995, Hooker sued all of the major presidential candidates in both parties, including President Bill Clinton, over what he claimed were unconstitutional campaign contributions.