The Tennessee General Assembly on Monday confirmed Shelby County Circuit Judge Mary Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Wagner will take her seat on the court after Justice Roger A. Page's retirement on Aug. 31. Wagner's confirmation passed the Tennessee House of Representatives 94-3 and the Senate 32-0 during a brief joint session. The Tennessean reports that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved her selection last week, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hailing her as an excellent choice for the court. During the hearing, Wagner described herself to committee members as “both an originalist and a textualist" and said overturning precedents should be done "sparingly and cautiously." Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

TBA’s Legislative Updates podcast is back for another week with attorney and TBA lobbyist Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorneys and TBA lobbyists Brad Lampley and Ashley Harbin. Special guest TBA Executive Director Sheree Wright also joined the episode to promote TBA’s upcoming Day on the Hill and Big Shrimp Reception on March 20 and talk a little about her background. The group discusses the Administrative Office of the Courts’ (AOC) budget presentation before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which included significant discussion of the reimbursement rate for indigent representation and impromptu testimony by Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Rob Philyaw about how the low rate is impacting his courtroom. Lampley says it was the “best conversation on this issue ever … in this public of a setting.” Watch the AOC testimony here beginning at 54:56. The vote to advance the governor’s proposed AOC budget to the Senate Finance Committee happens at 1:32:21.

Also in this week's episode, the group recaps the two school voucher bills moving through the House and Senate and provides an update on three TBA-supported bills: HB2710/SB2254 (conservatorship bill), HB2645/SB2632 (adoption birth certificate bill) and HB2644/SB2633 (adoption clean-up bill). Legislative Updates airs each week on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The Tennessee House yesterday passed a bill that would block local governments from reforming their traffic stop policies, the Commercial Appeal reports. HB1931/SB2572, sponsored by Memphis Republican Rep. John Gillespie, has faced opposition from Memphis' local elected officials, activists and the family of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was fatally beaten by Memphis police officers following a traffic stop in January 2023. Gillespie amended the bill on the floor in an attempt to narrow its focus so it would not apply to the "pretextual" stop ordinance passed by the Memphis City Council last year, but opponents say the change will not have the intended effect. That ordinance directed police to not make traffic stops solely for low-level offenses like improperly placed license plates or a single broken brake light.

Tennessee lawmakers have scheduled a joint convention for Monday to vote on Gov. Bill Lee’s nomination of Shelby County Circuit Judge Mary Wagner to fill an upcoming vacancy on the state Supreme Court, the Tennessee Journal reports. Lee chose Wagner on Feb. 1 from a list of three candidates that also included Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Ross Dyer and Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Camille McMullen. Wagner will fill a vacancy that will occur when Justice Roger A. Page retires on Aug. 31. Wagner, 39, is a TBA member and alumna of the association's Leadership Law Program. She earned her law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and was appointed to the circuit court in 2016 by then-Gov. Bill Haslam. She won reelection in 2018 and 2022.

Committees in the state House and Senate yesterday advanced two “vastly different” versions of a statewide school choice program that would allow students to use public dollars for private school. The House Education Administration Committee passed HB1183, a 39-page proposal that would also overhaul Tennessee's standardized testing requirements for public school students, make changes to teacher and principal accountability, and shut down the state’s Achievement School District by 2026. The Senate Education Committee approved SB503, a version of Gov. Bill Lee's plan, with additional accountability measures. The Senate version also allows "open enrollment to any school," permitting students to attend public schools outside of the districts for which they are zoned. The House version now goes to the House Government Operations Committee, while the Senate bill goes to the Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee. Read more about the bills in the Tennessean.

Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton says he will meet with the chamber’s chief clerk and legislative leaders over Nashville Democratic Rep. Justin Jones’ unexcused absences from the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, TN Journal reports. Committee records show that Jones missed three of six Agriculture Committee meetings before the panel’s meeting on Wednesday, which he attended.

Various state House subcommittees acted on legislation under their jurisdiction this week. In the House Departments and Agencies Subcommittee, a bill that would have banned cold beer sales was amended to establish a drunken driving task force. The 12-member task force will study drunken driving trends in Tennessee over the next year and recommend ways to decrease impaired driving, repeat offenders and underage drinking. In the Higher Education Subcommittee, members rejected a bill that would have banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Tennessee public universities and colleges. The Tennessee Journal reports on these actions. In the Population Health Subcommittee, members defeated a bill designed to protect in vitro fertilization treatments. Bill sponsors argued the measure was needed after the Alabama Supreme Court found that fertilized embryos have similar rights to children, WKRN reports. Republicans opposed the measure saying it was more confusing than current law and could allow for “selective abortion during IVF.” State Rep. Bryan Terry, R-Murfreesboro, also said the bill was not needed because a 2022 opinion from the Tennessee Attorney General already found that the state’s Human Life Protection Act does not apply to IVF treatment.

TBA's Day on the Hill and Big Shrimp Legislative Reception will be held in Nashville on March 20. The events give Tennessee lawyers an opportunity to meet with their legislators and talk to them about issues important to the profession, including funding for indigent representation. The TBA Day on the Hill will include a luncheon and meetings with legislators in the afternoon, followed by the annual Big Shrimp reception that night. Sign up now to take part!

A group of Democratic Tennessee lawmakers is asking the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate how the state has further restricted the process for people with felony records to get their voting rights back, reports the Associated Press. The group argues that "Tennessee law permits restoration of voting rights through a straight-forward administrative procedure," but the elections office has imposed additional requirements that people get their full citizenship rights restored or secure a pardon in addition to the restoration processes that have been in place. The policy changes began last summer, halting nearly all voting rights restorations. The issue once again sparked outcries from voting rights advocates after elections officials in January made another legal interpretation that restoration of gun rights is part of the requirement. Because of those changes, coupled with existing state and federal laws for certain offenses that permanently ban someone from getting their gun rights back, critics argue the state’s new policy permanently disenfranchises tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of people from getting another chance to vote.

A bill that would require all written driver’s license tests to be given only in English will be taken up by the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee on Wednesday. According to the Nashville Post, SB1717/HB1730, sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, and Rep. Kip Capley, R-Summertown, “prohibits use of a translation dictionary, electronic device or interpreter to assist with the examination.” Currently, Tennessee offers standard driver’s license tests in English and Spanish. Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said, “I represent one of the most diverse districts in the state of Tennessee, probably one of the largest immigrant populations in the state ... That is a blatantly discriminatory bill designed to target specific individuals.”