Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk’s office has concluded that a dog muzzle sent to the state’s former vaccine chief Dr. Michelle Fiscus was sent by someone else who fraudulently obtained a credit card in her name, WPLN reports. Last summer, Fiscus was fired from the Tennessee Department of Health. Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said the firing was due to job performance. Fiscus has claimed it was political retribution for comments about vaccinating some teenagers without parental consent. In the weeks before Fiscus was fired, someone sent a muzzle to her office. It was purchased with a credit card in her name, leading some to assume that she sent the item to herself. In the report, the district attorney’s office says it is too soon to tell whether the muzzle was meant to be a political statement, but that the events appear “too coincidental to be random.” The report recommends further investigation by federal authorities.

The Knox County Board of Education yesterday voted 5-3 to hire private attorneys to help fight two lawsuits over masks in schools, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Knox County Law Director David Buuck must now find candidates experienced with the Americans with Disabilities Act and/or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to bring before the board for approval. Buuck estimated a private attorney would be a "substantial" cost to the school board, with hourly rates around $500. The board's financial advisor said the district has healthy reserves. Buuck last month told two board members he would not hire outside counsel because it wouldn’t be helpful. The school board's representatives and the families that brought the suit have entered mediation and asked a federal judge to suspend his mask rule while they deliberate.

A request from Knoxville group Unmask Knox County Kids to remove the county’s mask mandate has been denied by federal Judge J. Ronnie Greer, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Greer’s order said the families behind the suit had to show "irreparable injury, loss or damage" in a verified complaint or affidavit, which they did not do. The mask rule—which Greer had implemented in the original lawsuit brought by four families of children with disabilities who asked for help protecting their kids from COVID-19—was kept in place. The judge has not addressed the families' request to tie the mask rule to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which show masks are not required indoors in Knox County. He did, however, order the Knox County Board of Education and the four families in the lawsuit to enter mediation. The board and the families have 60 days to meet and file a mediation report.

The U.S. Senate voted 49-44 today to strike down President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers. The Republican members of the chamber were able to force the vote under the Congressional Review Act, The Hill reports. Though no Democratic senators voted with Republicans to eliminate the rule, the GOP was able to get it through the evenly divided Senate because of six Democratic absences. The fate of the bill is unclear though. Observers say it would not likely pass the House or be signed by the president. The vaccine mandate applies to workers at health providers that participate in Medicare and Medicaid. It has been the subject of several court challenges but was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in January.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an order rescinding requirements for distancing between persons in courtrooms. The order takes effective immediately and applies statewide to all courts and court clerks’ offices, except administrative courts within the Executive Branch and federal courts and court clerks’ offices.

Court of Criminal Appeals Judges John Everett Williams, Tim Easter and Jill Ayers heard oral arguments for three cases inside Lipscomb University’s Collins Alumni Auditorium on Feb. 9 and fielded questions from students. The judges were asked a variety of questions, including what they look for in law clerks, how they prepare for oral arguments, advice for students interested in a legal career and how the judges put aside political opinions when judging cases. Ayers, who was appointed during the COVID-19 pandemic, noted that this was only her “third time to sit live” given that the court has been hearing arguments virtually during the pandemic. Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts. 

A new survey from legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa shows that 75% of respondents want to be in the office at least one day per week while only 27% want to be in the office more than a day or two. The group conducted the "LawLife 2.0 How the Pandemic Redefined the Way We Work" survey as a follow up to its 2021 “Lawyers’ Perspectives on Returning to the Office” survey and found that the desire to be in the office declined significantly in less than a year. Just 10 months ago, the number of respondents who wanted to be in the office three or four days a week was 46%. Stephanie Biderman, a co-author of the survey, said firms need to make the office experience worth the commute. “Firms have to make time in the office more valuable. Training, mentorship, positive cultural events and team-building events. That is where the focus is going to have to be,” she says. Law.com has more on the story.

Tennessee is joining 15 other states in a renewed challenge of the federal government’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, Mainstreet Nashville reports. The group of states – which represent locations where an injunction against the mandate is not in effect – filed suit in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Participating states included Louisiana, Montana, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia. In December, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a nationwide injunction blocking the mandate, limiting it to just the states in its circuit. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the mandate for health care workers and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it would start enforcing the requirement in states not impacted by an injunction.

University of Memphis Law School Dean Kate Schaffzin joined fellow deans from across the country on Friday for a virtual White House event celebrating schools that responded to the attorney general’s call to action to address the pandemic’s housing and eviction crisis. During the event, the White House announced that response to the call for action was “swift and wide.” Over the course of five months, more than 2,100 law students spent 81,000 hours serving 10,000 households. Memphis Law and Vanderbilt University Law School were among the 99 law schools that joined the effort. Read more about the initiative and the specific activities Memphis Law undertook to reduce evictions in its community. Watch a replay of the event on YouTube.

Though considered a formality, the Biden administration says it is withdrawing its attempt to enforce a vaccine or testing requirement for businesses with 100 or more employees, Bloomberg Law reports. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Jan. 13 that the administration overstepped its authority in imposing the mandate. In a statement, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration indicates there may be future revisions to the rule. Legal observers say the court left the door open for a refined mandate that does not treat every job as though it presents the same risk of COVID-19 exposure. In related news, a third of employers say they will keep their vaccine requirements in place despite the court’s ruling. Polling by Gartner Inc. shows that only 3% of employers said the court’s decision led them to drop the requirements. Read more about those findings.