Henry Martin will retire in 2025 after 40 years as the federal public defender for the Middle District of Tennessee, the Nashville Banner reported in a recent newsletter. The office represents people accused of federal crimes who cannot afford an attorney and has a unit dedicated to representing Tennessee death row inmates in federal court. Martin recently announced his retirement plans internally and the court announced the forthcoming vacancy online, with a June 20 deadline for applications from those interested in the position. Martin joined the public defender’s office in 1985. His service has included membership on the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and as president of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. In 2020, Martin received the TBA’s first annual Claudia Jack Award, which recognizes a public defender or court-appointed lawyer who serves their clients in an exemplary fashion.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals recently heard arguments in a case testing Tennessee’s redrawn congressional map, the Tennessee Journal reports. The Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP is suing over the state legislature’s decision to split a Nashville-based congressional district among three outlying districts. The group argues that the move was illegal gerrymandering designed to dilute the voting power of Black residents in urban Davidson County. The state is seeking dismissal of the suit.

Gov. Bill Lee has signed legislation designed to block adults from helping minors get an abortion or receive gender-related care without parental consent, the Associated Press reports. Lee signed the bills yesterday without comment. Both go into effect July 1. Those convicted of breaking the abortion trafficking ban will be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which requires a nearly one-year imprisonment sentence. Tennessee is the second state in the nation to enact such a law but is the first state to pursue penalizing adults who help minors receive gender-related care without parental consent.

An individual claiming to be a scammer from Nigeria has sent emails to various press outlets taking credit for the recent attempt to foreclose on Graceland, the Commercial Appeal reports. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, which is looking into the attempted sale, said it is aware of an email “from someone purporting to be Gregory Naussany that says, essentially, that he is a scammer from Nigeria.” The email, which was riddled with grammatical errors, states in part: “the Presly is all made up and a hoax, my ring preys on the dead and the elderly for money, we make things up by finding things on the Intanet to scam US citizens out of money.” Emails received by other newspapers varied slightly but carried the same basic message.

National law firm Husch Blackwell has announced it will open an office in downtown Nashville during the third quarter of this year. The firm will occupy more than 11,000 square feet at the Fifth + Broadway Building. Husch Blackwell partner Tim Capria, who joined the firm in July 2023 from Bradley Arant Boult and Cummings, will serve as office managing partner. The firm has been recruiting local attorneys over the past few years, adding more than eight since May 2023, but the office will be its first physical location in Nashville. “Establishing roots in Nashville has been a priority for the firm for the past few years due to the number of opportunities that align with our focus on health care, education and life sciences,” said Jamie Lawless, the firm’s chief executive. Read more in a release from the firm.

Gov. Bill Lee has signed SB2763, a preemption bill that blocks any local Tennessee municipality from passing its own version of an extreme risk protection order or "red flag" law, which could remove guns from individuals deemed a threat. The bill passed in the final days of session, a year after Lee failed to pressure lawmakers into a vote over his version of an extreme risk measure following the Covenant School shooting. The Tennessean has the story.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) along with the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference last week announced they will pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle several antitrust claims that could force schools to share athletics-related revenue with their athletes, reports the AP. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Friday released the following statement: "While our case is a little different than House v. NCAA, it seems like by and large we all want the same thing: for the NCAA to follow the law and for our student-athletes to have a clearly defined set of rules that give them a fair share of the revenue they generate. For decades, the NCAA and adjacent entities have made billions of dollars from the tireless work of kids playing sports, while fighting to keep these student-athletes from negotiating market compensation. The NCAA’s behavior has been illegal and unfair, which is why we filed our suit and why a federal judge ruled in our favor and issued a preliminary injunction to stop the NCAA’s illegal behavior. We will run every legal play in the book to protect Tennessee’s student-athletes."

State Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Eads, asked Gov. Bill Lee to hire William Bratton, a former two-time New York Police Department commissioner known for his enforcement of petty crimes, to have him study Memphis’ crime problem. In a letter to the governor, Taylor described the city as a "warzone" with a diminishing quality of life, noting that businesses are closing and people are leaving because of the crime rates. The Daily Memphian reports that according to data released last week, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city lost 5,200 residents from 2022 to 2023. Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, said "Yes, we need to hold criminals accountable, but, more importantly, we need to break the cycle of violence with initiatives that prevent crime before it happens ... This isn’t rocket science. When people’s basic needs are being met and you target illegal guns, crime goes down."

Virginia-based IT staffing firm Arthur Grand Technologies Inc. (AGT) has reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Labor (DOL) over a job posting that read "whites only." NPR reports that under the arrangement, AGT will pay a civil penalty of $7,500, along with a total of $31,000 to 31 people who complained about the posting. The company — which is minority-owned and a federal contractor designated as a disadvantaged business — also will be monitored to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws. "Arthur Grand Technologies vehemently denies any guilt or wrongdoing in relation to the discriminatory job posting," AGT CEO Sheik Rahmathullah said, adding that the job notice was an "unauthorized posting" by disgruntled employee.

Nashville Metro Arts Executive Director Daniel Singh has agreed to resign after less than two years in the position, reports WPLN. The arts funding agency has been under intense scrutiny over the last several months after it failed to distribute millions of dollars in promised grant funds. Singh’s resignation was approved by the Metro Arts Commission at a specially-called meeting on Friday. In return, he’ll receive a $200,000 settlement payment from the city government, which will prevent Singh from suing Nashville, Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz said during the meeting. Housing activist and former Metro Arts Commission Chair Paulette Coleman has been appointed as interim executive director.