The Tennessee Supreme Court today denied pension benefits to former Chattanooga firefighter Matthew Long, who had applied for job-related disability pension benefits in 2020 due to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. After a hearing, the Chattanooga Fire and Police Pension Fund denied benefits. Long appealed and the Hamilton County Chancery Court reversed the denial and awarded benefits finding there was not sufficient and material evidence to deny benefits. The fund then appealed to the Court of Appeals. That court affirmed the chancery decision after determining that the disability benefits policy was ambiguous and should have been interpreted in favor of Long. On appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court disagreed and determined that the policy was not ambiguous. It then upheld the initial denial of benefits because it found substantial and material evidence in the record to support the decision.

Murfreesboro attorney John “Jock” Richardson Rucker died Oct. 8 at age 72. After earning his law degree from the then Memphis State University, Rucker returned to his hometown to join his family’s law practice, first established in 1860. For 43 years, Rucker practiced law alongside several family members, including his father and son. He served as president of the local bar association and was honored as a fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation. Visitation with the family will be Oct. 19 from 2 to 6 p.m. CDT at One Church Calvary, 431 Dejarnette Lane, Murfreesboro 37130. The funeral service will be Oct. 20 at 10 a.m. at the church, with burial to follow at Evergreen Cemetery. Donations in Rucker’s honor may be made to Alive Hospice, 1629 Williams Drive, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 or One Church Calvary, 431 Dejarnette Lane, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.

Tuesday through Friday of this week, the TBA communications team that produces TBA Today will be at the National Association of Bar Professionals (NABE) Communications Workshop, being hosted by the NABE Communications Section in Boise, Idaho. Stacey Shrader Joslin, Julia Canada Wilburn and Azya Thornton will be learning from and networking with other communications professionals from bar associations across the country. Joslin and Wilburn will be serving on a panel focused on “Serving the Whole of Your Membership” while Wilburn will be moderating a panel on “Creating a Communications Plan.” Wilburn also is chairing the section’s award committee, which will be presenting a number of awards at the conference. Additionally, the team will be producing the newsletter from the Mountain Time zone so sending times may be a little different. Thanks to our TBA colleagues who will be pitching in to help this week!

Over the past two months, members of the TBA Young Lawyers Division (YLD) have been visiting law schools across the state.  Members of the YLD Board recently joined together for two final stops at the Nashville School of Law and the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. Students were encouraged to apply for the YLD's Rural Judicial Fellowship program and the award-winning DLI program, as well as to reach out to members of the TBA while still in law school. Special thanks to YLD Board members Alex Bunn, Morgan Hanna, Cole Harrell-Morris and Jennifer Sneed, who volunteered their time, as well as to Memphis Law student Divine Dent, a graduate of the DLI Class of 2025, who participated and shared her experiences.

JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs are five football players at the University of Kentucky (“UK”) who were subject to racial taunts and physical violence at a fraternity-sponsored party. Yet after the altercation, defendant Detective Cory Vinlove, a Lexington police officer, initiated criminal charges against plaintiffs. A grand jury eventually refused to indict plaintiffs but, by then, news of the investigation had already hurt plaintiffs’ reputations and careers. After being cleared of wrongdoing, plaintiffs sued Vinlove, Sergeant Donnell Gordon, Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers, and Lexington-Fayette County Urban Government (“LFCUG”), asserting various federal and state-law claims. Defendants moved to dismiss all claims except a state malicious prosecution claim. The district court granted the motion, reasoning that as damaging as defendants’ actions were, they were not deprivations of liberty under the Fourth Amendment as required for the federal claims. The district court also dismissed plaintiffs’ state-law claims, finding that the alleged facts failed to state a claim under state law. We now affirm the district court.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge. The plaintiff in this case—which we will call “United Allergy”—provides personnel and supplies to primary-care physicians so that the physicians may offer allergy testing and immunotherapy to patients. United Allergy charges the physicians a set fee for its goods and services, and the physicians, in turn, charge medical insurers for their own allergy care. According to United Allergy, though, several insurers conspired with each other and with the predominant allergy-care medical group to drive United Allergy and its contracting physicians from the market. United Allergy brought two antitrust claims against the insurers and medical group. Yet the antitrust laws permit plaintiffs to sue only if they have suffered injuries “by reason of” an antitrust violation. 15 U.S.C. § 15(a). And the district court dismissed United Allergy’s antitrust claims on the pleadings because it lacked “standing” to invoke this provision. The court then rejected United Allergy’s state-law claims at the summary- judgment stage. We agree with the district court’s results. In the process, though, we must clarify the nature of the antitrust inquiry. To sue under the antitrust laws, a plaintiff must show both that it suffered an antitrust injury and that the defendant proximately caused the injury. United Allergy’s suit flunks the latter element. Relying on proximate-causation principles, the Supreme Court has held “that indirect purchasers who are two or more steps removed from [an antitrust] violator in a distribution chain may not sue.” Apple Inc. v. Pepper, 587 U.S. 273, 279 (2019). And the same rule should apply in reverse to indirect sellers for antitrust violations that a group of buyers (like the insurers here) commit. United Allergy is also an indirect seller because it is “two” “steps removed from” the insurers in the distribution chain. Id. The insurers directly bought from (and harmed) the primary-care physicians by allegedly conspiring to fix their reimbursement rates and deny their claims. And that conduct harmed United Allergy only indirectly because it led the physicians not to pay United Allergy’s fees and to end their relationship. We thus affirm.

In May 2023, the Greene County Grand Jury issued a presentment against Defendant, Jacob Columbus Deal, charging him with three counts of statutory rape by an authority figure and three counts of aggravated statutory rape. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Defendant pled guilty to one count of aggravated statutory rape to be sentenced out of range at ten years as a Range I offender at thirty percent with the trial court to determine the manner of service. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court denied alternative sentencing and ordered Defendant to serve his entire ten-year sentence in confinement. On appeal, Defendant argues that the trial court erred by denying him alternative sentencing. Following our review of the record, the briefs of the parties, and the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Appellee was injured in an automobile accident where Appellant’s, a governmental entity, employee was 100% at-fault. On appeal, Appellant argues that the trial court erred in: (1) finding that Appellant’s governmental immunity had been removed; (2) admitting testimony from two of Appellee’s treating physicians; and (3) admitting certain medical billing records. Appellees ask this Court to award frivolous appeal damages. Discerning no error

National Guard personnel were seen patrolling around the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid and Riverside Drive in downtown Memphis on Friday morning as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, the Daily Memphian reports. The deployment marks the Tennessee National Guard’s first visible presence in the city under President Donald Trump’s multiagency crime reduction initiative. Guard members, some armed, were stationed inside and outside the Pyramid but did not appear to engage with shoppers. In early announcements about the Memphis Safe Task Force, Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the Guard would act as “eyes and ears.” Gov. Bill Lee called the Guard a “force multiplier” for local police, and said that personnel would not be making arrests.Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could authorize the use of up to 1,000 Tennessee National Guard troops for one year.

A civil rights watchdog agency opened an investigation into how the federal government has responded to allegations of antisemitism on college campuses, Reuters reports. Led by Democratic Chair Rochelle Garza, the bipartisan agency is seeking documents and communications between federal officials and about a dozen universities — including Columbia University and the University of Minnesota — regarding antisemitic incidents and enforcement under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The probe will examine government actions dating back to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and is expected to examine the Trump administration’s handling of campus antisemitism complaints and threats to withhold federal funding. The commission plans to hold public hearings in November and issue a report within a year.