During his first term, Rye enacted the so-called "Ouster Law," which allowed for the removal of public officials for incompetence or unwillingness to enforce the law. This law was aimed primarily at Crump, who as Mayor of Memphis had refused to enforce prohibition in the city. The state attorney general filed a suit removing Crump in October 1915. When the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the action, the Rye administration proceeded to purge any official who refused to enforce prohibition, among them District Attorney Newton Estes and Judge Jesse Edgington of Memphis, as well as several officials in Nashville (including Mayor Hilary Howse) and Knoxville.