We’re not sure we’ve seen an appellate court act so quickly before. The state appeals court in Fort Worth had ruled on Thursday that Pete Kamp’s name should stay on the ballot for at-large Position 5 of the Denton City Council, and on Friday the Texas Supreme Court affirmed that decision, removing Kamp’s last obstacle to staying on the ballot and dashing her opponent Mike Sutton’s last hope of having her kicked off.

Sutton had filed his own separate petition with the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth after joining a district court suit in Denton filed by political gadfly Bob Clifton. Clifton’s complaint also sought the removal of Mayor Perry McNeill and former City Council member Mark Burroughs from the May 10 ballot on the grounds that they, and Kamp, had been elected to the maximum number of terms allowed by the city’s charter and should not be allowed to seek another term on the council, or as mayor.

When visiting District Judge David Evans first addressed all the parties in the first case, we thought for a while that the city might be in for some industrial-strength political chaos. The judge indicated he didn’t think too much of the city’s initial defense of its liberal interpretation of the city charter, and we had visions of the election being postponed as he considered the case on its merits.

However, he quickly — and wisely, in our opinion — decided not to put the city through that wringer and decreed he would not enjoin the election while he considered the case.

In the meantime, Sutton had filed his separate case with the appeals court. His legal advisers apparently thought it was worth a shot, and for all we know they may have been right.

But the court of appeals found against Sutton in near-record time, and the Supreme Court did the same only 24 hours later.

As far as we can tell, that means that the May 10 municipal elections will be held as scheduled in Denton. If Kamp, McNeill or Burroughs are among the winners, and if Judge Evans eventually rules that the city has been interpreting the charter too liberally, plaintiff Clifton is free to file still another legal challenge, and given his track record, he will not surprise anyone if he does.