The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an order amending Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 10B in response to a petition filed by the Tennessee Trial Judges Association (TTJA) asking the court “to provide judges with authority to summarily deny repetitive recusal motions filed pursuant to section 1.01 of Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 10B, to provide appellate courts with a means of supplementing the record in Rule 10B appeals, to state that the scope of appellate review and relief in Rule 10B appeals is limited to affirming or reversing a trial court’s decision on a recusal motion, and to describe the procedures that should be followed on remand from an appellate court’s order reversing a trial court’s denial of a recusal motion.”

The TBA filed a comment in response to the TTJA’s proposal in which it supported the proposed changes to sections 1.01 and 2.05 as drafted, supported the purpose of the changes to section 1.03 but suggested a change in the proposed language to sections 1.03 and 2.06. The court agreed with the TTJA’s proposed changes to section 1.01 and 1.03 and added language clarifying that any subsequent motion filed under section 1.01 (seeking disqualification, recusal or a determination of constitutional or statutory incompetence of a judge) in the same case must state, with specificity, substantially different factual and legal grounds than those relied upon in support of a prior motion filed under this section, and if this requirement is not satisfied, the subsequent motion may be deemed repetitive and may be summarily denied by the judge without requiring a response to the motion, a hearing on it or any other written explanation for denying the motion as provided in section 1.03. The court also agreed with the TTJA’s proposed changes to section 2.05 allowing the appellate court, when reviewing the petition for recusal appeal, to remand to the trial court for the taking of proof and making further findings on matters designated by the appellate court. Finally, the court amended section 2.06 by adding that if an appellate court reverses a trial court’s order denying a motion under section 1.01, the appellate court shall remand the case for designation of a successor judge in accordance with section 1.04 of this rule.