The TBA Administrative Law Section is accepting submissions for its annual writing competition for law students. All students enrolled in a Tennessee law school during the 2024–2025 school year are eligible to enter. Submissions are due April 30. The section offers this yearly competition to promote an interest in and understanding of both state and federal administrative law, and to strengthen the relationship among administrative law professors, law students and practitioners in Tennessee. The winning submission will be published in the Administrative Law Section newsletter and the winner will be awarded $1,000. Get more information and competition rules in this handout.

The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office Division of Consumer Affairs and the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors warned consumers last week about home improvement fraud and provided tips in a press release to help recognize and avoid fraudulent contractors. "Home improvement scams top the list of consumer complaints received by our Division of Consumer Affairs," said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. "If you’re planning to renovate this spring, make sure your contractor really is licensed and bonded — don’t take their word for it. Do your due diligence before you trust anyone with your money."

On behalf of myself, the entire executive council, and the TBA leadership of the Administrative Law Section (ALS), I want to extend a warm thanks to all our members for being a part of this practice section. 

This is an active and exciting time in administrative law. Fiscal Year 2024-2025 has seen several circuit courts of appeals and SCOTUS rulings which are expected to have long-term ramifications for private citizens, businesses and government agencies. The Supreme Court’s drastic dilution, if not elimination, of Chevron deference may or may not have as great an impact as many are predicting, but it is almost certain to spark a significant volume of litigation and subsequent appellate court action. This is a great time to be part of a group of colleagues with similar professional interests in the field of administrative law.

The ALS and the TBA produce an annual CLE-qualified Administrative Law Forum. This year’s forum was well-attended and covered such current topics as the demise of Chevron, recent developments in the Tennessee Administrative Procedures Act and a professional ethics session highlighting the services of the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP). The faculty included outstanding speakers from both the bench and the bar of Tennessee. The forum is held in December each year, and we look forward to another informative and exciting forum this year. We hope you will join us.

Another program the ALS sponsors is a legal writing competition which is open to any law student in Tennessee. Intended to help develop and strengthen future lawyers’ interest in administrative law, the legal writing competition allows the student to choose his or her own topic in the field of administrative law. The papers are judged by a panel of the ALS Executive Council, and the winners are awarded cumulative cash prizes of $1,000. The deadline for this year’s competition is April 20. For more information feel free to contact Brooke Leeton, our TBA staff liaison, at bleeton@tnbar.org.

Again, we appreciate all our colleagues who are members of the ALS, and hope you will renew your membership again this year. We also extend a sincere open invitation to anyone else who has an interest in administrative law and wants to avail themselves of the many benefits of ALS membership.

Jerry Taylor

The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury has released a report on Shelby County's criminal justice system following a request by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, more than a year ago. The report, which examined thousands of felony charges filed between 2018 and 2024, found that while Shelby County handles more felony cases than other major counties, it struggles with delays, with only 33% of felony charges disposed of within a year. According to the Commercial Appeal, investigators pointed to several factors contributing to delays, including turnover in the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices, a reduction in criminal court judges, and frequent changes in defense counsel, which often result in case resets. The report also fund that the court system has work to do in furthering transparency and making things accessible to the general public. Since taking office, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has pushed for a public-facing database that could provide some of this data.

Montgomery Bell Academy of Nashville was named the 2025 Tennessee State High School Mock Trial champion last month after two days of preliminary rounds. The school prevailed over Agathos Classical School from Columbia. Tennessee State Supreme Court Justice Mary Wagner presided over the round, while members of the TBA Young Lawyers Division's (YLD) Executive Committee, TBA President Ed Lanquist Jr., TBA Vice President Heidi Barcus and TBA Executive Director Sheree Wright served as jurors. Earlier in the day, the top eight teams were announced, an MVP for each of the 16 teams was recognized, individual awards were presented to the best advocates and witnesses, and Sevier County High School of Sevierville was awarded the 2025 Sportsmanship Award. The top three artists in the inaugural Artist in the Courtroom Contest also were recognized and the first place winner was on hand to accept the award. 

Special thanks to YLD Mock Trial Committee Chair Ashley Tipton, Vice Chair Michael Holmes, Long Range Planning Coordinator Judge Zachary Walden and members of the committee for organizing this year's event, which involved 16 teams, more than 200 participants and more than 100 volunteers, including sitting Tennessee judges, lawyers and the YLD's Diversity Leadership Institute's law students. Montgomery Bell Academy now will represent Tennessee at the National High School Mock Trial Competition in Phoenix, Arizona, in May. The team is coached by attorneys Tracy Hancock, Wade Cowan and Marisa Combs Smith. Harper Cowart of Signal Mountain High School was selected as the top artist and qualifies to participate at the national championship as well. See photos from this event.

Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) of Nashville was named the 2025 Tennessee State High School Mock Trial champion Saturday night after two days of preliminary rounds. The school prevailed over Agathos Classical School from Columbia. Tennessee State Supreme Court Justice Mary Wagner presided over the round, while members of the TBA Young Lawyers Division's (YLD) Executive Committee, TBA President Ed Lanquist Jr., TBA Vice President Heidi Barcus and TBA Executive Director Sheree Wright served as jurors. Earlier in the day, the top eight teams were announced, an MVP for each of the 16 teams was recognized, individual awards were presented to the best advocates and witnesses, and Sevier County High School of Sevierville was awarded the 2025 Sportsmanship Award. The top three artists in the inaugural Artist in the Courtroom Contest also were recognized and the first place winner was on hand to accept the award. Read more about the event and see photos.

The Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) on behalf of the Tennessee Supreme Court has proposed a new structure for handling the appointment of attorneys in indigent cases. One question that has been raised is whether attorneys currently taking appointed cases will be able to continue to do so under the new structure. In a recent interview with TBA President Ed Lanquist Jr., AOC staff explained that the plan assumes that all those currently taking cases will continue to do so. This proposal in no way is intended to exclude anyone. While the process for appointment will be different, the goal is to maintain the current roster of attorneys while also expanding the pool of available lawyers. AOC staff indicated they have been encouraged by interactions with lawyers who previously stopped accepting appointed cases but are interested in getting involved again. They also believe the new structure will be appealing to new lawyers and those interested in practicing in rural areas since the contract model will provide a “book of business” and more steady income. Watch the full interview or learn more about the plan and indigent representation in Tennessee.

The TBA Appellate Practice Section on April 30 will host a free webinar regarding recent developments on waivers in Tennessee appellate courts. Presenters Donald Capparella and Jacob Vanzin will explore recent decisions by the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Supreme Court affecting when a litigant will be determined to have waived an issue on appeal. The speakers will emphasize the impact of these decisions on issue statements and citations in appellate briefs. One hour of general CLE credit is available for a $60 processing fee. Learn more and register here.

BLOOMEKATZ, Circuit Judge. Aaron Salter spent 15 years in prison for a deadly shooting he did not commit. Salter’s conviction rested on a single eyewitness’s testimony identifying him as one of two shooters. There was no physical evidence or other witness tying Salter to the murder. Instead, the eyewitness identified Salter when the lead investigator, Detective Donald Olsen, showed him a single mug shot of only Salter and said that police had already arrested one of the shooters. That same eyewitness testified that he also identified a different man as the shooter from a photo array. And that man more closely resembled the witness’s description of the shooter than Salter. The investigator’s file also contained a separate closeup photo of that man, suggesting he was a suspect. Salter claims that Detective Olsen failed to disclose any of this information, leading to an unfair trial and his wrongful conviction. In this civil rights lawsuit, Salter contends that Detective Olsen violated his constitutional rights in two ways: first, by withholding favorable evidence pointing to a different suspect, in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963); and second, by conducting an unnecessarily suggestive identification process that led to the eyewitness’s false identification of Salter. Detective Olsen moved for summary judgment on both these claims, arguing that he was entitled to qualified immunity. The district court denied the motion, and Detective Olsen appealed. Because we do not have interlocutory jurisdiction over several aspects of this appeal, we dismiss in part. For the parts we review on the merits, we affirm.

Petitioner, Demarcus Keyon Cole, acting pro se, appeals from the summary dismissal of his petition seeking a writ of error coram nobis, claiming that Judge Donald H. Allen erred by summarily dismissing the petition while Petitioner’s motion to recuse Judge Joseph T. Howell was pending. We conclude that Petitioner is not entitled to relief and affirm the summary dismissal of the petition. However, we remand for Judge Howell to enter a written order granting the recusal motion.