Tennessee prison officials are appealing a judge’s order requiring them to deactivate the defibrillator in Byron Black’s chest before they execute him on Aug. 5. The case will go straight to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which has asked Black’s attorneys to file their arguments by the end of this week. Tennessee Department of Correction officials told Davidson County Chancellor Russell Perkins earlier this week that they were unable to comply with his original order because they could not find a medical professional who would deactivate the device moments before the execution. The device will be deactivated at Nashville General Hospital the morning of the execution. Perkins modified his order to allow that procedure, but now the state is asking the state Supreme Court to allow them to execute Black without deactivating the device at all. Black’s attorneys have told the court that by design, the device will repeatedly shock Black during his lethal injection in an attempt to restore his heart’s normal rhythm. Read more in the Nashville Banner newsletter.

A proposal from the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is facing pushback from law school deans. The ABA Journal reports that proposed changes to Accreditation Standards 303, 304 and 311 would double the required number of experiential learning credits from six to 12. The section’s council has received 343 pages of comments on the proposal, most of which were in opposition. Concerns centered on the cost of creating the classes, the overall impact on tuition, and the lack of flexibility within the curriculum, including how part-time students would be able to meet the requirements. Writing in support of the change was the Clinical Legal Education Association, the Society of American Law Teachers and one professor emerita. The council will consider the input at its next meeting set for Aug. 21-23.

The American Bar Association (ABA) will receive $3.2 million in domestic violence training grants through 2027, after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to appeal a May ruling blocking cancellation of funding. After the department chose not to appeal, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper administratively closed the ABA’s lawsuit, putting the case on hiatus for two years. According to Reuters, the DOJ and the ABA released a joint status report that either party could reopen the case “if circumstances warrant.” Cooper had ruled in May that the ABA was entitled to the full amount of grants it had been awarded to train lawyers to represent victims of domestic and sexual violence.

A coalition of news organizations — including the Nashville Banner, Tennessee Lookout, The Tennessean, WSMV and WTVF — are suing the state of Tennessee over a law passed in the 2025 legislative session that makes it illegal to approach a police officer within 25 feet if the officer is engaged in official duties and has ordered the person to stop advancing. The publications claim the law is so broad it will cover “most of what law enforcement officers do in public” and will put reporters at risk of arrest for simply doing their job. They also argue that a distance of 25 feet is too far way for journalists to report on law enforcement activities. The Banner has more on the suit in its newsletter today.

Rulings from federal judges yesterday mean that Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be released from jail in the coming weeks and put under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Maryland, where he was living before being deported to and brought back from El Salvador. The Hill reports that U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville ordered him to be released pending trial on charges of human smuggling. Later in the day, another federal judge delayed that order for 30 days at the request of the defendant’s lawyers. Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland ordered that Abrego Garcia be transferred to supervised release under ICE's Baltimore office and that the agency give him 72 hours to appeal if it plans to deport him.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently settled a suit brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on behalf of its clients, the Star News and journalist Matt Kittle of The Federalist. WILL had sued the bureau in April after it denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for access to the writings of the individual who shot and killed six at Nashville’s Covenant School. As part of the agreement, the FBI released 120 pages of the shooter’s “manifesto” and agreed to pay WILL more than $86,000 in legal fees. Star News Digital Media owns and operates a number of state-focused news sites, including The Tennessee Star. Read more in a news release from the institute.

The Trial Court Vacancy Commission has received eight applications for a vacancy in the 20th Judicial District following the retirement of Judge Cheryl A. Blackburn. The applicants for the criminal court vacancy are Mark Cole, Ronald Dowdy, Dustin Faeder, Keeda J. Haynes, Dominic J. Leonardo, Kyle D. Parks, Stephen Douglas Thurman and James Harwell Todd. A public hearing for the candidates will be held July 31 at 9 a.m. CDT at the Nashville School of Law, 4013 Armory Oaks Dr., Nashville 37204. Any member of the public may attend and may express orally or in writing any objections about the applicants. The commission is expected to vote immediately following the interviews and forward nominees to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration.

A Tennessee judge ruled Tuesday that the state may deactivate death row inmate Bryon Black’s implanted heart-regulating device at a hospital on the morning of his execution, rather than bringing a doctor or technician into the execution chamber, the Associated Press reports. The ruling adjusts an earlier order that required prison officials to deactivate the defibrillator moments before Black’s execution. During a hearing on the issue, Deputy Attorney General Cody Brandon said Black’s physicians at Nashville General Hospital were unwilling to enter the execution chamber. He asked the judge to either overturn the previous order or allow the Tennessee Department of Correction to transport Black to the hospital for the procedure.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has dismissed a complaint filed during the Biden administration challenging Tennessee’s law restricting certain medical procedures for minors. According to a press release, the department said it no longer believes continuing the case serves the public interest. The complaint was filed after individual plaintiffs and the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the state's 2023 law. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that challenge in a 6-3 decision, ruling that the law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. Following that ruling, the individual plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their complaint.

Former Judge Bernice Bouie Donald has joined JAMS, a private provider of alternative dispute resolution services, following a four-decade legal career that included service on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. district and bankruptcy courts in the Western District of Tennessee, and the Shelby County General Sessions Court. Donald will serve as a mediator, arbitrator, court-appointed neutral and neutral evaluator in civil rights, business, bankruptcy, intellectual property and health care cases, according to a press release. Based in Tennessee, she will offer in-person and virtual services to clients nationally and internationally. Donald also is a member at Burch, Porter & Johnson in Memphis and runs her own mediation practice.