U.S. Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley in a series of letters is calling on officials in Maryland and Virginia to "enforce" state and local laws that, she wrote, "prohibit picketing outside of the homes of Supreme Court Justices,” NPR reports. Curley's requests come after weeks of protests and picketing outside the homes of the court's conservative justices in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., set off by the leaked Roe v. Wade draft decision in May. Federal and local law enforcement have been present at the homes, but governors of both states have recently said that responsibility for managing the protests falls to federal law enforcement. The two governors wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in May, urging him to enforce a federal law that forbids the demonstrations.

Three 2020 Nashville School of Law graduates have helped strengthen Tennessee’s “Unlawful Exposure” law, Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 reports. As an NSL student, Doni Porteous worked on two “revenge porn” cases during her time as an intern at the Davidson County District Attorney’s office. Both cases couldn’t be prosecuted because they “didn’t fit the letter of the law.” Porteous decided to make the issue the focus of her rigorous writing project at NSL, identifying the law’s weaknesses in her paper. Fellow NSL graduate David Aguilera, who worked in the state legislature, later spoke with Porteous about the issue and brought it up with his boss, Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville. Yarbro then filed a bill to close the loopholes Porteous had identified. Logan Elliot, another classmate of Porteous and Aguilera, works for Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, who then co-sponsored the bill, which went into effect on July 1.

Attorney Kevin Latta of Columbia law firm Parks, Bryant & Snyder was yesterday featured in a New York Times article on the Tour Divide – a 2,700 mile ultra-endurance bikepacking race from the Canadian Rockies to New Mexico. Roughly 200 cyclists gathered in Banff, Alberta, to start the 2022 race. Fifteen cyclists had to be airlifted out of the race, which was made complicated this year by extreme weather including above average rain, snowfall and New Mexico wildfires. Caught in a storm, Latta was swept down a river on his bike, later realizing he’d been taken 10 miles off course by a broken GPS device. “It didn’t occur to me that I was off the route,” he said. “I just thought this was the continuing sadism of the 2022 Tour Divide.” Ultimately, Latta voluntarily disqualified himself by accepting a ride from a forest service truck. Though he was disqualified, Latta was determined to get back on the route and finish the race. Read the New York Times article.

A Shelby County woman contesting a permanent revocation of her voting rights must now take her case to a Special Three-Judge Trial Court, the Daily Memphian reports. Pamela Moses says she was unaware that pleading guilty in 2015 to a felony charge related to evidence tampering would result in permanently losing her voting rights. She filed paperwork to restore her right to vote in 2019 and, in January, was sentenced to six years in prison for illegally registering to vote. Those charges were ultimately dismissed in April. Shelby County Circuit Judge Felicia Corbin-Johnson yesterday determined that Moses’ case to restore her voting rights was not within the jurisdiction of the district attorney’s office and that the attorney general would need to be the opposing party in the matter. The three-judge panel will be selected by the Supreme Court and will consist of Corbin-Johnson and trial judges from the Middle and Eastern Districts. 

Kentanji Brown Jackson was today sworn in as the first Black female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Tennessean reports. She replaces retired Justice Stephen Breyer, who yesterday informed President Joe Biden that he would officially retire today, hours after the high court released the last two rulings of its current term. Jackson, a Harvard-trained lawyer and former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was confirmed to the Supreme Court in April on a 53-47 vote by the U.S. Senate. Chief Justice John Roberts administered one oath of office to Jackson and Breyer – for whom Jackson clerked more than 20 years ago – administered the other. With that, Jackson became the 104th associate justice – marking the first time women and people of color outnumber white men on the court.

The Tennessee Supreme Court’s Justice for All Initiative, Belmont College of Law, the American Job Center, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity’s Omicron Sigma Lambda Chapter and state Rep. Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna, held an expungement clinic in Smyrna yesterday. The clinic, held at Parkway Baptist Church, provided an opportunity for those with criminal records to speak to attorneys about removing these infractions from their records. Also, according to an Alpha Phi Alpha representative, Krispy Kreme, Bethel University and Allied Universal were on site offering jobs to those whose records were expunged. A similar clinic will be held at Motlow Community College in the fall. The Nashville Post previewed the event.

The Memphis Bar Association has released the results from its Judicial Qualification Poll for Shelby County’s contested judicial and court clerks’ races on the Aug. 4 ballot. All licensed, practicing attorneys in the county were polled and 1,199 participated in the survey. “The work of our judges ranks at the very top of importance for the stability of the American System of Justice. Lawyers appear every day in our courts and are best able to determine who is most qualified to preside over the cases brought by citizens seeking justice,” added David Wade, chair of the Judicial Practice & Procedures Committee which oversaw the poll. Read results of the poll.

Tennessee’s longest serving judge, Montgomery County General Sessions & Juvenile Court Judge Wayne Chavis Shelton, will retire tomorrow, the Administrative Office of the Courts has announced. Shelton has served on the court since being appointed by Gov. Lamar Alexander in 1979. He earned his law degree in 1973 from Memphis State School of Law (now University of Memphis). He first worked with a law firm in Memphis and then moved to Montgomery County where he practiced with the late Thomas E. Stamper. Among his accomplishments, Shelton has served as president of the Tennessee Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, received the Judge Elizabeth McCain Memorial Award for service to the state juvenile courts, and received the council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Read more about his career and tributes from colleagues.

The Trial Court Vacancy Commission is accepting applications for a criminal court judge in the 11th Judicial District, which covers Hamilton County. The vacancy was created by the appointment of Judge Tom Greenholtz to the Court of Criminal Appeals, Eastern Section. Applicants must be licensed attorneys, at least 30 years of age, residents of the state for five years and residents of the judicial district. The deadline to apply for consideration is July 12. Complete application instructions are on the Administrative Office of the Courts website. The commission will hold a public hearing on Aug. 5 at 9 a.m. EDT to interview candidates.

Civil rights attorney Fred Gray will receive the nation’s highest honor — the Presidential Medal of Freedom — on July 7, the National Bar Association announced today. The Alabama native became a global icon for Black American jurists, lawyers and law students during his long career, driving some of the country's most significant court decisions impacting the lives of Black Americans and other underserved communities. His accomplishments include representing Rosa Parks, and serving as the attorney for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., legal counsel for the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study victims, and president of the Alabama State Bar and National Bar Association. In 2006, Gray spoke at the Tennessee Bar Association’s Diversity Summit. In 2016, Lipscomb University renamed its Institute for Law, Justice & Society for Gray. Randall Spivey, academic director for the institute, wrote about Gray’s legacy in the October 2016 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal.