Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) Director Michelle Long testified before the House Finance Committee last week, telling lawmakers it has been nearly 27 years since Tennessee boosted pay for court-appointed attorneys, who often handle difficult cases involving children and families. The current situation, she said, is approaching a crisis point, the Tennessee Journal reports. Long asked the committee to restore at least some of the funds needed. She also asked the committee to fund a new human resources staff member and a full-time staff member to manage the Supreme Court’s “Justice Bus” program. The committee is conducting hearings on Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed 2024-2025 budget, which did not include funding requested by the AOC for these expenses. The TBA continues to support the AOC’s request to increase the reimbursement rate for indigent representation. Watch her tesimony beginning at 1:40:50. Please visit the TBA Government Affairs webpage for more information and to get involved with its grassroots efforts.

U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett will not face a primary opponent this year, Tennessee Journal reports. Lenoir City tire dealer Jimmy Matlock, a former state House member who lost to Burchett in the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District in 2018, announced last week he would not challenge him again.

The state House on Thursday passed HB1644/SB1679, legislation that would require all schools, public or private, to develop emergency procedures to determine the cause of an activated fire alarm, reports the Tennessean. Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, filed the bill in response to the Covenant School shooting, and the House first passed a version during the August special session. After the legislation failed to advance during a House and Senate stalemate, Lamberth refiled a new version earlier this year. In other news, Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, is sponsoring a bill to ban all but a narrowly defined list of flags from display in Tennessee public schools. Two heated committee meetings drew protestors on both sides of the issue. Broadly, HB1605, bans displays that “represent a political viewpoint, including but not limited to, a partisan, racial, sexual orientation, gender, or other ideological viewpoint.”

The Tennessee House of Representatives today passed a bill that requires the “safety of the community” be a magistrate’s first consideration in determining whether a defendant is released on bail. According to the Daily Memphian, the bill, HB1642/SB2562, sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, and Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, is one of several related to bail under consideration in the General Assembly this session. Present law requires a magistrate to consider several factors in determining bail in order to ensure the defendant’s appearance in court. Those factors include the amount of time they’ve lived in the community, their employment status and financial condition, the severity of the alleged offense and the probability of conviction. “All the other factors will still be considered by the judge or the magistrate, but it makes public safety the first factor,” Lamberth said Thursday. The bill passed by a vote of 80-13, with three abstaining. “The safety of the community is already the priority of the criminal justice system,” said Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville. State Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, said that “instead of attacking bail, we need to address the root causes of the problems, such as poverty, the lack of opportunity, gun violence."

More than a year after a report was released that was highly critical of Tennessee State University's (TSU) senior leaders, Republican lawmakers are moving to remove and replace the members of its governing board. Axios Nashville reports that the Senate Government Operations Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would vacate the board. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, said, "It has been made abundantly clear over the past few years that Tennessee State University is in need of a reset. A new board and a new president working in tandem will give the university the fresh start it needs." Sen. Charlane Oliver, D-Nashville, countered, saying many of the problems at TSU are tied to historic underfunding. A federal review found that TSU has been underfunded by billions of dollars. "We have wronged this university," Oliver said. "As a result of our failures, TSU's operations are in the state of affairs that they're in now."

Former Republican lawmaker Scott Campbell is claiming he was forced to resign as part of a cover-up for a Republican leader, WKRN reports. Campbell quit the legislature in 2023 after sexual harassment allegations came to light. A state investigation found Campbell violated harassment policy in his interaction with an intern. Campbell defended the interactions as “consensual” conversations. Now he is suing for records he says will help clear his name.

State Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, has confirmed that she plans to run for her current state House District 90 seat in addition to running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn. The Tennessee Journal reports that Johnson says she is aware of attempts to block that ability. Legislation that would bar candidates for state and federal offices from appearing on primary or general election ballots for two or more offices is being promoted by two Knoxville Republicans: Senate State and Local Government Chair Richard Briggs and Rep. Dave Wright. The bill would allow for a few exceptions, including if the candidate already holds two offices and for purely political offices such as party state executive committees.

Gov. Bill Lee outlined his $52.6 billion state budget proposal to lawmakers during his annual State of the State address Monday evening, the Tennessean reports. House and Senate members will consider budget legislation over the coming months. Big-ticket items in the proposed budget include $410 million in recurring funding and $1.2 billion in nonrecurring funding to simplify the franchise tax in Tennessee. While the current franchise tax has been in place for roughly 90 years, a change was necessitated by the threat of litigation, thus prompting the administration to address the issue now so the state can move forward. The budget also includes a $141 million appropriation to establish Education Freedom Scholarships. While specific details of the plan have yet to be revealed, Gov. Lee emphasized that it should be parents — and not the government — who decide where their children go to school and what they learn.

On the judicial front, it appears that many areas of the judicial system are slated to be funded at the same levels as the current FY 23-24 budget, including indigent representation. Increased funding for indigent representation remains a top priority of TBA, which is committed to working alongside the Tennessee Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts and others on this important issue. In related news, the executive committee of the Tennessee Judicial Conference, which represents all state judges, sent a letter to Gov. Bill Lee, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, House Speaker Cameron Sexton and members of the Tennessee General Assembly stressing the need to increase funding for indigent representation in the state. Other legal organizations, including the TBA, also have written similar letters, which are posted here. For more information, and to join TBA’s grassroots efforts to support funding for indigent representation and other issues important to Tennessee attorneys, please visit TBA’s Government Affairs webpage.

According to the Tennessean, federal prosecutors are investigating Cade Cothren, former House Speaker Glen Casada’s aide, for allegations of cyberstalking. The information was disclosed in court filings last week when prosecutors asked to delay the impending trial of both Cothren and Casada, The Tennessee Journal reports. Law enforcement subsequently obtained a search warrant and seized several phones from Cothren’s house. Cothren's attorneys have asked the judge to quash the warrant. Prosecutors now say "in an abundance of caution," they have not extracted any information from the phones and will not do so before a hearing set for this afternoon.

A bill introduced last year that continues to be debated in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee would remove protections for more than half of the state’s wetlands. The Daily Memphian reports that currently, developers must get approval from the state environmental agency before disturbing wetlands, but Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville — the bill's sponsor and a developer in West Tennessee — called that “bureaucratic overreach” that inflates construction costs for developers and landowners. In Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that a wetland isn’t federally protected unless it connects to a permanent body of water, such as a river, lake or ocean, on the surface. In other House action, WSMV reports that Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, has introduced a bill to allow certain members of the public — law enforcement officers, retired law enforcement officers, and active and retired members of the armed forces — to openly carry a gun on any school campus.