Peter Turney - Tennessee Supreme Court

Tennessee Supreme Court

Following Tennessee's implementation of its 1870 constitution, Turney was elected to the Tennessee Supreme Court. He was reelected in 1878 and 1886, and was elevated to Chief Justice following the latter race. Although he spent 23 years on the court, Turney issued few opinions, and those he did write have been described by legal scholars as short and confusing.

In October 1891, the Turney-led court ruled on two cases related to a labor-related uprising in Anderson County, Tennessee, known as the Coal Creek War. The Tennessee Coal Mining Company (TCMC) had attempted to replace striking miners with convicts leased from the state, and the miners had responded by overwhelming company stockades and removing the convicts. Governor John P. Buchanan had sent the state guard into the area, and had negotiated an uneasy truce with the miners while the state considered ending the convict lease system.

In the first case, State v. Jenkins, the state had sued TCMC president B.A. Jenkins for threatening to close one of the company's mines if the miners did not fire their checkweighman (who weighed the coal for which the miners were paid). The state argued this violated a state law that granted miners the right to an independent checkweighman. Turney ruled against the state, arguing that while the law prevented mine owners from directly firing checkweighmen, it did not prevent mine owners from closing mines should miners refuse their demands to fire checkweighmen.

In the second case, State v. Jack, a convict, William Warren (with the help of the striking miners), had filed a writ of habaeus corpus challenging TCMC's authority to hold him prisoner, arguing that the state's primary convict lessee, Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway Company (TCI), violated its contract with the state by subleasing convicts to TCMC. A lower court had ruled in favor of Warren, and ordered him returned to the state's direct custody. Turney, however, overruled the lower court, arguing that the TCMC stockade was essentially a "branch prison" of the state, and that a convict in a state prison could not file for habaeus corpus.