This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Rosary Palermo married Denny Cheatham. Both H and W were lawyers and W continued to use her maiden name both professionally and socially. Tennessee had a compulsory registration law, and W was advised that she had to register anew with her new surname of her husband or have her named purged from the registration records. W's name was purged, and W sought declaratory relief or that the statute be declared null and void. Tennessee has no statutory enactment that a woman automatically takes her husband's surname.

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