A clear example of institutional design working around a constitutional constraint. Verify statutory wording and amendment chronology before legal publication.
The law followed earlier licensing and temperance efforts and redirected the political geography of alcohol control.
When Tennessee's constitution frustrated a direct local option, legislators used school charters and unincorporated territory to prohibit alcohol sales within four miles of schools. The workaround removed many rural saloons while initially leaving manufacturing interests less affected.
PDF sheet 209; displayed ebook page 193
PDF sheet 207; displayed ebook page 191
The Four Mile Law
Fresh text comparison2026-09-28: PDF sheets207–209; extracted on-screen ebook labels191–193. Physical PDF-sheet locator is canonical. Full457-sheet visual layout survey completed; contact sheets are not fine-detail proof. Capture lacks endnotes, bibliography and index; this verifies representation of a secondary source, not its primary evidence.
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