President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a bill that extends security protections to Supreme Court justices' immediate family members. The bill — the Supreme Court Police Parity Act of 2022 — was passed by the House earlier this week and the Senate passed the measure last month, CNN reports. It allows the families of Supreme Court justices to be covered by the security currently provided to the justices if the marshal of the Supreme Court "determines such protection is necessary," according to the text of the legislation.

An attempt to unanimously pass a bipartisan bill to shield the personal information of federal judges online failed after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., blocked it for a third time, the Chattanooga Times Free-Press reports. The Thursday motion for unanimous consent was the second time this year that Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has attempted that maneuver to pass the measure introduced after the murder of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas’s son at their home almost two years ago.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Supreme Court security bill yesterday, sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature, Bloomberg Law reports. The vote on the bill was 396 to 27. The Senate passed the Supreme Court Police Parity Act in May. The measure would authorize police protection for families of Supreme Court justices and for staff of the court if the court’s marshal decides it is necessary. Today, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department supports the legislation and the White House said the president would sign the bill into law, according to Reuters.

Congress will tonight begin its committee hearings on the events leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, WPLN reports. Nearly 20 Tennesseans have been charged for their part in the insurrection against certifying the 2020 presidential election. Several are still awaiting sentencing. Most of those who have been sentenced are facing three years of probation after pleading to a misdemeanor. One man, Nicholas Brockhoff, who was seen spraying officers with a fire extinguisher before entering the Capitol through a broken window, has remained behind bars since May 2021. WPLN has the status of each Tennessean who has been charged.

The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday voted 223-204 to pass gun reform legislation following a rash of mass shootings across the country, including the recent elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, WPLN reports. The “Protecting Our Kids Act” raises the minimum age to purchase many semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, establishes new restrictions on selling large-capacity ammunition magazines and compensates local governments for buyback programs among other reforms. Five Republicans crossed party lines and voted in favor of the bill. Tennessee’s two Democratic representatives voted for the bill and all seven of the state’s Republican representatives voted against it. The bill is not expected to pass the Senate, where a more modest reform measure is under discussion.

Davidson County Chancellor Russell Perkins ruled Friday that the Tennessee Republican Party violated the state open meetings act when it met in private to remove Robby Starbuck from the primary ballot in the 5th Congressional District race. In declaring the removal void, Perkins ruled that Starbuck’s name should be restored to the ballot, Tennessee News Journal reports. The party could decide to appeal but the timing is tricky; the deadline to finalize ballots for the Aug. 4 primary is Friday. The Journal has the opinion.

A new House Republican bill would make leaking confidential Supreme Court information a crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, is a response to the May 2 leak of a draft opinion that would strike down the landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade, Bloomberg Law reports. “The unauthorized leak of the draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health constitutes a grave breach of judicial ethics and a deliberate attack on the independence of the Supreme Court,” Johnson said in a statement about the bill. An investigation into the leak is continuing. Yesterday, the Supreme Court Marshal’s Office reportedly requested that clerks turn over their private phone records.

The U.S. Senate yesterday voted to confirm Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit by a vote of 49-43. Davis will be the first Black woman to serve on the court from Michigan, and only the second Black woman on the court, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Davis began her legal career in private practice focused on product liability and commercial litigation and then joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. In 2016, she was appointed to the U.S. District Court in Eastern Michigan. Davis will replace Judge Helene N. White, who is retiring. Today, President Joe Biden nominated Ohio lawyer Rachel S. Bloomekatz to also serve on the court. Bloomekatz is a solo practioner in Columbus. She previously served as an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General in Boston, and as a law clerk on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Stephen Breyer.

East Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett has asked Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to monitor retail prices of powdered baby formula and investigate reports of profiteers stockpiling formula to gouge prices. Burchett said yesterday that the state has been hit “the hardest” by the shortages and that "leaders need to make sure anyone who takes advantage of this crisis for profit is held accountable,” WBIR reports. The nationwide formula shortage has led other states to respond. On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a public consumer alert warning people about price gouging, saying her office was aware of reports that baby formula was being sold online for prices "far exceeding its retail value."

President Joe Biden today announced a slate of bipartisan nominees to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Bloomberg Law reports. If approved, they would give the panel its first quorum since 2019. The president also nominated U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves of the Southern District of Mississippi to chair the commission. If confirmed, he would be the first Black chair in the commission’s history. Others nominated were: U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom of Kentucky; former assistant federal public defender Laura Mate, now working for the federal public defender in Arizona; former judge and now New York-based Debevoise and Plimpton partner John Gleeson; former principal deputy associate attorney general Claire McCusker Murray; Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Candice Wong of Washington. Read more about the nominees in a release from the White House.