Autopsy reports have confirmed that two Shelby County Jail inmates, who died earlier this year, suffered from medical complications. Darin Crawford, 57, died of pneumonia after being found unresponsive in his cell on Feb. 9, while Courtney Berry, 36, died of heart complications, including aortic dissection, on March 30 after complaining of chest pain. Both men had been in custody for less than a month. Their deaths are among at least seven at the jail in 2024 and 64 since 2019. The ongoing deaths and overcrowding have renewed calls for a new $1.3 billion criminal justice complex at the former Firestone plant in North Memphis. The Daily Memphian has the story.

Brown University's School of Public Health identified 579 nursing homes nationwide that are at risk of closure due to Medicaid cuts in the recently passed federal budget legislation. The bill reduces federal Medicaid spending by $1 trillion over the next decade. The Commercial Appeal reports that 12 of the nursing homes are in Tennessee. These facilities meet key risk criteria, including having over 85% of residents on Medicaid, occupancy rates below 80%, and low federal quality ratings. Tennessee’s TennCare program serves about 1.5 million residents, covering roughly 20% of the population and half of all children and births. The findings echo a separate University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study, which listed nine Tennessee rural hospitals among more than 300 nationwide endangered by the budget reduction.

Judge Robert Wedemeyer recently was elected presiding judge of the Criminal Court of Appeals, officially assuming the role on Aug. 1 from Judge Camille McMullen. Wedemeyer will be responsible for presiding at all meetings of the court and at trials, ruling on the admission or exclusion of evidence, serving as the spokesperson for all matters pending before the court, and writing or designating another judge to write majority opinions. “We just have an outstanding group of judges on our court,” he said. “It is a huge honor to be elected. To serve on this court 25 years and that’s part of it because usually we lean toward the senior most judge, if that judge is willing to serve and can do a good job. So, apparently these other 11 think I can do it okay so I will do my best.” Read more in a profile from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Judge Robert Lynn Echols Sr. died Aug. 2 at age 84. A 1964 graduate of the University of Tennessee School of Law (now Winston Law), Echols joined the Tennessee Army National Guard in 1966, embarking on a military career that spanned nearly four decades and eventually rising to the rank of brigadier general. After a brief time in Washington, D.C., he settled in Nashville and was a founding member of the Dearborn & Ewing law firm. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in 1991, and served as chief judge from 1998 to 2005. Echols continued to serve the court as a senior judge until 2010. He later practiced law with Bass, Berry & Sims and Neal & Harwell until his retirement in 2019. Services were held Wednesday. Memorial contributions may be made to Abe's Garden Community, 115 Woodmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37205.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order today that will allow alternative assets in 401(k) plans. The order instructs the Department of Labor to issue guidance for employers and administrators on incorporating real estate, cryptocurrencies, private market investments and other resources into these retirement plans. While the order does not change policy, it is a bellwether on the administration's priorities, and aligns with a letter in Trump’s first term telling plan fiduciaries that private equity may be part of a “prudent investment mix” in managed asset allocations, according to CNBC. Defined-contribution workplace plans held $12.2 trillion as of the end of the first quarter of 2025, with around $8.7 trillion held in 401(k)s.

TBA's "Raising the Bar" program will be held Nov. 19 at Baker Donelson in Nashville. Breakfast will begin at 9:15 a.m. with programming from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A networking reception will follow from 4:30 to 6 p.m. All times CST. Stay tuned for updates on this annual favorite produced by the Women in the Profession Committee.

July 28, 2025 - August 1, 2025.

COLE, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs own ovens with front-mounted burner knobs manufactured by Whirlpool Corporation. In their class-action complaint, they allege that their ovens’ stovetop burners are capable of “unintended actuation,” whereby the stovetops ignite inadvertently. After plaintiffs sued Whirlpool, the district court found that plaintiffs had Article III standing to pursue their claims but dismissed the amended complaint for failure to state plausible claims for relief. Plaintiffs now appeal dismissal of their state common law and statutory claims, while Whirlpool argues the district court erred by not dismissing plaintiffs’ amended complaint for lack of Article III standing. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge. In August 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which gave the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the ability to negotiate prices for drugs manufactured by companies that choose to sell to Medicare and Medicaid under the Drug Price Negotiation Program. The Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce (the Dayton Chamber), the Ohio Chamber of Commerce (the Ohio Chamber), the Michigan Chamber of Commerce (the Michigan Chamber), and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America (the U.S. Chamber) (collectively, Plaintiffs) sued HHS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the agencies’ heads (collectively, the government) on behalf of their pharmaceutical-manufacturer members, challenging the constitutionality of the Drug Price Negotiation Program. Plaintiffs claimed that the Program amounted to the government’s attempt to “displace[] market forces and set[] prices on targeted products through central planning.” They based their challenge on the United States Constitution’s Due Process Clause, Excessive Fines Clause, and First Amendment. In addition, Plaintiffs contended that Congress exceeded its legislative powers. They requested both declaratory and injunctive relief. The government moved to dismiss the complaint on the basis that the Dayton Chamber lacked associational standing because the lawsuit was not germane to the Dayton Chamber’s purposes, making venue in the Southern District of Ohio improper. Agreeing with the government, the district court dismissed the case for improper venue. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

DAVIS, Circuit Judge. Malcolm Hoyle pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and admitted that the conduct underlying that offense was a violation of a condition of his supervised release. In a joint sentencing hearing that covered both the substantive felon-in- possession charge and the follow-on supervised-release violation, the district court imposed 96 months’ imprisonment for the felon-in-possession offense and 24 months for the supervised- release violation, to be served consecutively. Hoyle claims three errors. First, he contends that he never knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to a revocation hearing for the supervised- release violation, so we should remand the case for such a hearing. Second, he argues that the district court erroneously applied the sentencing factors delineated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) during his sentencing on the violation, and this misapplication of the factors led to a procedurally unreasonable sentence. Third, he asserts that his sentence on the substantive offense is also procedurally unreasonable, because the district court improperly calculated his sentencing guidelines when it erroneously gave career-offender treatment to two of his prior convictions. His first and third claims of error lack merit. But because the district court clearly considered inapplicable statutory factors in fashioning Hoyle’s sentence for the supervised-release violation, we AFFIRM IN PART, REVERSE IN PART, and REMAND for further proceedings.