The state Senate Government Operations Committee has passed HB910/SB861, a bill that would dissolve the Tennessee Human Rights Commission and transfer its functions to the state attorney general. Established in 1963, the commission is an independent state agency in charge of enforcing civil rights laws and prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. The commission employs investigators, attorneys and other personnel and is run by a nine-member board of commissioners appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. The bill now goes to the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee, where it is scheduled to be considered next week. In the House, a companion bill passed the Ways and Means Subcommittee and is scheduled to be heard by the full Finance, Ways and Means Committee next week as well. The Nashville Post has more on the proposal.

Legislation that would have established a presumption that joint legal custody and equally shared parenting time is in the best interest of the child failed to pass the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 16-3, leaving it dead for the year. The bill, HB1131 was sponsored by Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis. The Senate version of the bill, SB1331, is sponsored by Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville. George Spanos, chair of the TBA Family Law Section, testified against the bill, and the TBA Government Affairs team worked to educate lawmakers on the need to maintain current law, which requires the judge to look at the facts of each individual case and determine custody based on what is in the best interest of each child.

The TBA Family Law Section’s legislation, HB492 — sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville — successfully passed the House Judiciary Committee. The Senate version, SB540, sponsored by Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon, passed the Senate on March 6. The legislation, as amended, removes the three-year threshold for trial courts to consider a parent’s failure to pay child support from the best interest of the child factors in TCA 36-6-106(a)(16). As amended, the bill also amends the grandparent visitation statute (TCA 36-6-306) to add a new subsection (g) that will allow trial courts the discretion to award attorney’s fees and expenses to either party in a grandparent visitation case.

Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, is sponsoring SR120, urging the Tennessee Supreme Court to create a disciplinary body explicitly for elected district attorneys, similar to the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct, which oversees judges in in the state. Taylor told the Commercial Appeal, "If you have a complaint with a judge, you can file that complaint with the Board of Judicial Conduct. If you have a complaint with the district attorney, you have two options. You can either live with it or you can take the nuclear option and try to remove them. There's nothing in the middle." Taylor notes that the Board of Professional Responsibility (BPR) deals with "transgressions as it relates to being a licensed attorney" but the new board would focus "on the actions of performing their job as a district attorney or a public defender." Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who has been a target of Taylor's was asked about the need for such a disciplinary body. He tells the paper, "It's too early to answer that question, because there have been no details worked out. One thing I can say is that the process should not be duplicated: either a person should be investigated by the BPR or by some new body, but not both."

A bill proposed by Rep. Shaundelle Brooks, D-Nashville, would hold responsible those who knowingly provide firearms to those who are not allowed to possess them. HB0947/SB1191, which is named "Akilah's Law" for Brooks' son who was killed in the shooting at an Antioch Waffle House in 2018, passed the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on March 26 with bipartisan support and no substantive debate. The bill would create a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a sentence of imprisonment not greater than 11 months, 29 days, or a fine not to exceed $2,500, or both, for those who sell, offer to sell, deliver, or transfer a firearm to a person knowing that the person has, within the previous five years, been admitted, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to a mental institution unless the treatment was voluntary and solely for an alcohol abuse disorder and no other secondary substance abuse disorder or mental illness. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider the bill tomorrow. The Nashville Banner has more on the proposal.

The Tennessee General Assembly is projected to adjourn for the year in mid- to late April, given that most legislative committees have already closed or are set to close within the week. The House and Senate Finance Ways and Means committees are meeting this week and next week to determine whether legislation that has been voted out of other committees with a fiscal note will be funded. Because the governor included $17 million for a new indigent representation plan in his budget amendment, the committees do not have to vote on whether to add that funding. However, at the end of session, the House and Senate leadership will meet and determine exactly which measures will be included in the final budget and how much the funding will be. The budget is the one piece of legislation that lawmakers constitutionally are required to pass before adjournment. Once the budget is approved, lawmakers will consider matters “behind the budget” that received funding, as well as other priority items. It is anticipated the session will adjourn a few days after that.

A bill headed for both the House and Senate floors could clarify cases in which an abortion could be legal in Tennessee to preserve the life of the mother, the Nashville Post reports. According to bill sponsor Rep. Bryan Terry, R-Murfreesboro, SB1004/HB990 would not add specific exceptions, but would specify some cases in which an abortion could fall under the state ban’s sole exception of “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of major bodily function.” Conditions in the bill include previable/premature rupturing of membranes, inevitable abortion, severe preeclampsia, mirror syndrome associated with fetal hydrops, and infection that could result in uterine rupture or loss of fertility. During a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting last week, co-sponsor Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, said, “… this bill is simply about clarifying and elaborating on the existing ‘life and health of the mother’ exception in current law. Under this bill ‘reasonable medical judgment’ still applies.” In October, a three-judge panel ruled in Davidson County Chancery Court that doctors could perform an abortion from a list very similar to the one in the legislation. An alternative measure, which would have created an exception for “fetal fatal anomalies” was rejected by the Senate committee.

A bill proposing a one percentage point increase to Shelby County’s sales and use tax passed the Senate State and Local Government Committee on April 2, the Daily Memphian reports. The revenue generated from the tax increase would exclusively fund the construction of a new jail in Shelby County. If the bill were to pass this year, the law would not take effect until passed by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and then by voters through a county-wide referendum. The legislation is designed to address deteriorating conditions within the jail, which have led to a string of deaths and subsequent lawsuits. Since 2019, the Downtown jail, also known as 201 Poplar, has seen 61 inmate deaths and five so far in 2025. The bill, SB337/HB308 is sponsored by Rep. John Gillespie, R-Memphis, in the House and Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, in the Senate.

A bill to reinstate voting rights for people convicted of certain felonies passed the Senate State and Local Government Committee on April 1, the Daily Memphian reports. SB336, sponsored by Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, would remove the requirements for persons convicted of certain felonies to have fully paid all court costs associated with their crime to be eligible to vote. It also would remove the requirement to be up to date on child support payments to be eligible to apply for a voter-registration card. Akbari said the bill would help alleviate concerns of financial hardship preventing voting-rights restoration for those who have completed all requirements of their sentence. The bill would not apply to “infamous” felony crimes, which are defined by the state. Individuals convicted of “infamous” crimes are forever ineligible for voting-rights reinstatement under current state law. The House version of the bill, sponsored by state Rep. Karen Camper, D-Memphis, was set for an April 1 vote but was postponed.

A proposal that would allow public schools to take certain actions involving children without legal immigration status is headed to the state Senate floor after clearing the Finance, Ways, and Means Committee yesterday. The Senate version of the bill would require school districts to verify each student’s immigration status. For children without citizenship or a visa, schools could choose whether to enroll them, deny them, or charge their families tuition based on the state’s per-student funding model. Last Wednesday, the House version of the bill advanced in the House Education Committee, according to WPLN News.

HB811/SB227, sponsored by Rep. Rusty Grills, R-Newbern, and Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, proposes that charitable organizations across the state, such as churches and homeless shelters, might be held accountable if an undocumented immigrant they knowingly house commits a crime. A spokesperson for the Nashville Rescue Mission told Fox17 that the bill would punish organizations and strain resources. In response, Grills said, "The intention of this bill is not to incriminate those who provide temporary housing for a homeless shelter. It's to deter criminal activity." The sponsors say they plan to add amendments to the bill for more clarity, including possibly expanding what liability entails. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill last week. The House Civil Justice Subcommittee is set to consider the bill tomorrow.