The Knox County Board of Education recently approved a legislative agenda opposing mandates that would require public school districts to check students’ immigration status. According to the Moore County News, Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, and Rep. William Lamberth, R-Portland, sponsored bills in the 2025 General Assembly that would have required or permitted such checks. Board members added a tenet urging the state to support the principle that public schools exist to educate all children. During the legislative debate, Watson said the measure was designed to save money. He cited a Rutherford County School Board resolution estimating it costs $3,500 more per student to educate non-English-speaking children. The state Senate passed the bill, and it remains pending in the House.

Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles heard arguments this week in a case seeking greater media access to information about state executions. A group of news outlets has sued to compel the Department of Correction to provide the information, according the Nashville Banner. Myles said her ruling, even if released before the execution of Harold Wayne Nichols next week, will not affect press access at that event. Paul McAdoo, with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, asked Myles to accommodate the request for access “as soon as practical.” In related news, a group of medical professionals are calling on Gov. Bill Lee to pause executions until the lethal injection protocol can be reviewed by a court. A letter from the group raised “grave concerns” with the use of pentobarbital. The Banner has more on both stories in its newsletter.

During a recording of the WKNO podcast "Behind the Headlines," Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris stated that an office other than the sheriff’s should be running the county jail. A total of 12 prisoners have died in custody of the sheriff’s office so far this year, including at least four in November. Harris criticized what he described as a lack of urgency from Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. and said he is exploring options with the Tennessee Corrections Institute and other state officials, including potential changes in training or even private management. Bonner, who is suing Harris over budget restrictions, said many inmates who died had longstanding health issues tied to poverty and noted that medical care in the jail is overseen by a contractor selected by the mayor’s office, not the sheriff. The Daily Memphian has the story.

Vanderbilt University Law School is seeking volunteers to conduct 20-minute virtual mock interviews for LL.M. students in early February. For more information and to volunteer, contact Legal Studies Program Manager Tricia Crocker at the law school.

TBA Past President Buck Lewis and his wife Malinda have been honored in Memphis and in Knoxville for their work and support of the American Red Cross. Buck Lewis served sequentially as chair of the advisory board in each city. The board room in Knoxville and the red staircase in Memphis have very recently been named in the couple's honor. He began his Red Cross service in 2005 after helping organize legal aid for Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Memphis. His commitment to community service, shaped by his parents’ example and reflected in his work with organizations including the Tennessee Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission and the American Bar Association’s FreeLegalAnswers.org, continues to guide his leadership in strengthening Red Cross partnerships, fundraising and volunteer engagement across the state. Read more on the American Red Cross website.

Yesterday afternoon, Judge Waverly Crenshaw canceled next week’s scheduled evidentiary hearing in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case pending further order, according to the Nashville Banner newsletter. Among other motions, next week’s hearing was meant to consider the issue of vindictiveness. In October, a federal judge in Nashville ruled there is a “realistic likelihood” the government acted vindictively in bringing human smuggling charges against Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador before being brought to Tennessee in June to face criminal charges. 

In 2026, California will become the first U.S. state to require attorneys to take an annual civility oath to “conduct themselves with dignity, courtesy, and integrity,” Reuters reports. The new requirement was proposed by a 2021 task force, approved by the state Supreme Court in September and finalized by the State Bar of California last month. Brian Currey, a retired California appeals court judge and chair of the task force, says, “Incivility is ‘sand in the gears’ of the legal system. When lawyers waste their time and energy sniping at each other, it makes resolving disputes or issues more difficult.” In 2018, the Tennessee Supreme Court amended the oath that new Tennessee lawyers take, swearing that they will conduct themselves "with honesty, fairness, integrity, and civility."

Apperson Crump, self-proclaimed as the oldest continuously operating law firm in Memphis, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Commercial Appeal reports. The reporting was based on filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee in Jackson. According to the paper, the firm voluntarily filed to reorganize on Dec. 1. A meeting with its creditors is set for Jan. 5, 2026. Apperson Crump opened its doors in 1865, founded by Charles W. Metcalf, grandfather of the late Charles Metcalf Crump, who served multiple terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives. The firm did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication, according to the paper.

A split federal appeals court held last week that Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC was wrongly denied qualified immunity for its role acting as outside counsel for Nashville’s local government in a First Amendment suit. Bloomberg Law reports on the decision from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Read the opinion.

Vanderbilt University reportedly is still in talks with the Trump administration around a proposal that would provide preferred access to federal grants in exchange for the school implementing a series of government mandates, the Nashville Business Journal reports. The proposal had an original deadline of Nov. 21 for the school to respond. At that time, the university’s chancellor released a campus-wide message reiterating the school’s commitment to “academic freedom, free expression and independence” and belief that grants should be merit based. The paper reports that the university issued a statement saying: "We do not currently have a November 21st deadline, nor a directive to accept or reject the compact" and highlighting its track record of "principled, bipartisan dialogue with the federal government."