Two Judges Fired the City Court Clerk. Now They Want to Pick Her Replacement Before Her Hearing.

Memphis Municipal Court Judges Varonica Cooper and Kenya Hooks terminated City Court Clerk Sukita Johnson on April 7. Her appeal sits with the City Council, a hearing is set for August 28, and the judges are moving to seat retired Judge Earnestine Hunt Dorse as interim clerk first. The grounds for the firing have never been stated publicly.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The office that keeps the records of Memphis's city court has been in a quiet fight over who lawfully runs it since spring, and the fight is about to get a date certain.

Memphis Municipal Court Judges Varonica Cooper and Kenya Hooks terminated City Court Clerk Sukita Johnson on April 7, 2026, Action News 5 reported Friday, August 21, 2026. Johnson, listed by the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts as the City Court Clerk, appealed her termination to the Memphis City Council later in April. A hearing between the judges and Johnson is scheduled for August 28, 2026. The grounds for the dismissal are not stated in the coverage, and neither the judges nor the city has publicly explained them.

Johnson did not win the office at the ballot box. She was appointed, selected first to serve on an interim basis and then approved and sworn in through the city's municipal processes and Council confirmation.

Before the hearing happens, the judges are moving to fill the seat. Cooper and Hooks are seeking to appoint retired Judge Earnestine Hunt Dorse as interim City Court Clerk, per Action News 5, with WREG separately reporting the Dorse nomination. The Daily Memphian reported the same day that Johnson is asking the Council to reinstate her.

The sequence raises a structural question the coverage has not answered: on what authority two Municipal Court judges can remove and replace the City Court Clerk, and what role the Council actually holds in the appeal. The clerk's office handles the records, fines, and fees of the city's courts, public money and public records both, which is exactly why the removal authority and the grounds should be on paper somewhere a resident can read.

Whatever the August 28 hearing produces, the four-month gap tells its own story: a termination in April surfaced publicly in August, at the moment a replacement was being arranged, with the reasons still unstated.

Why It Matters for Memphis

Court clerks handle the money and the records of the justice system's busiest layer. A removal with unstated grounds, an appeal of uncertain jurisdiction, and an interim appointment racing the hearing is a governance dispute the public learned about last, and its outcome sets precedent for how removable the city's clerks are.

The Transparency Gap

Who holds the authority here. That is the unresolved question at the center of this story, which is unusual. Two Municipal Court judges acted as the removing authority. The City Council is hearing an appeal, which implies it holds some reviewing power, though the source of that power has not been stated. The Council also confirmed Johnson's appointment in the first place, which makes its silence on the removal harder to explain. The Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts lists the clerk in its state directory but does not appoint or remove her. Three institutions are acting and no one has cited the provision that lets them.

What has not been disclosed. The grounds for the April 7 termination have never been stated publicly, in April or since. The provision of the charter, ordinance, or state law authorizing two Municipal Court judges to remove the City Court Clerk has not been cited by anyone. The Council's jurisdiction over the appeal has not been explained. The terms and duration of the proposed interim appointment are unstated. And the four-month gap between the termination and public knowledge of it has not been accounted for.

Why the gap matters, and what we are requesting. An office that handles court fines and fees changed hands in April and the public found out in August, when a replacement was being arranged. If the removal was lawful, the provision authorizing it exists and can be cited in a sentence. If the grounds were sound, they can be stated. The absence of both, four months on and a week before a hearing, is the story. The 901 Report is requesting the April 7, 2026 termination notice and any stated grounds, the charter or ordinance provision governing appointment and removal of the City Court Clerk, Johnson's appeal filing and the Council's claimed jurisdiction over it, and the proposed interim appointment instrument for Judge Dorse. We will report what those records show.

Your city. Your money. Your receipts.

Two Judges Fired the City Court Clerk. Now They Want to Pick Her Replacement Before Her Hearing.

Why It Matters for Memphis

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