A Muslim woman from Knoxville has been awarded $71,500 in her lawsuit against the Knox County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) after the agency released her mug shot without her hijab. The woman partially settled the suit on March 11. She had filed the suit seeking at least $250,000 in damages. The settlement resolves only her claims for monetary damages, according to Knox News. She also is seeking to have her booking photo deleted and amend KCSO policy to allow hijabi women to keep their head coverings on during mugshots.

Nashville attorneys have sued President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the heads of several federal agencies to recover $14 million for two federal grants that were awarded but never paid, the Nashville Post reports. Nashville joins five major cities and 11 nonprofit groups as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The city is suing for a $4.7 million grant, awarded in August, to expand public vehicle charging stations and a $9.3 million grant, awarded in January, to build bike lanes and pedestrian improvements near the East Bank. Both grants were part of infrastructure programs managed by the U.S. Department of Transportation. According to the suit, Nashville has already completed a procurement process, selected a vendor and signed a contract for electric charging stations, leaving the city with significant financial liability. Two federal judges recently ruled against the White House in similar cases, stating that such funding interference violates the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Tuesday led a bipartisan coalition of 30 attorneys general urging the U.S. Congress to pass federal legislation that would allow states to deploy cell phone jamming systems in prisons. The proposed bill seeks to prevent inmates from using smuggled cell phones to orchestrate crimes from behind bars. Currently, federal law prohibits the use of cell phone jamming technology. The legislation is designed to avoid interfering with emergency signals while granting states the authority to implement targeted jamming systems within prisons. “Contraband cell phones pose a serious risk to public safety when criminals reach beyond prison walls and continue terrorizing our communities,” Skrmetti said in a press release. “This legislation finally gives states the tools they need to stop this illegal and dangerous activity.”

The state Senate State and Local Government Committee has unanimously voted in favor of legislation that would financially penalize private prison operators for increasing death rates. The bill, SB1115, would allow the state Department of Correction to remove 10% of the prison population from any private prison once the death rate reaches twice the average death rate in state-run prisons. The legislation specifies that the population reduction would continue "until the department determines that the conditions leading to the reduction have been corrected." The House State & Local Government Committee passed its version (HB1144) today and forwarded it to the Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee. Action is scheduled next for April 2. According to The Tennessean, one private prison operator — CoreCivic — is paid based on its daily inmate population so a reduction would impact its bottom line. A Tennessean review in January of death data from 2020 to 2023 found that deaths occurred disproportionately in CoreCivic facilities, with more than 50% of prison deaths during that period occurring in company's four facilities.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on March 20 suspended 11 attorneys for failure to pay the annual registration fee; six of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the fee suspension order and IOLTA suspension order. Recent reinstatements for fee or IOLTA violations include three in 2024. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2025 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

Gibson County lawyer Eric Preston Egbert received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court on March 14. The court took the action after finding that he engaged in activity that involved a conflict of interest in violation of Rule of Professional Conduct 1.7, 1.9(c) and 8.4(d) and (e). Egbert agreed to represent two individuals in probating the estate of their brother. The principal asset was a parcel of realty located in the county. The clients subsequently decided not to proceed with the probate action, and Egbert closed his file. Some time later Egbert was hired as the delinquent tax attorney for the county. In this capacity, he learned of delinquent taxes on the property and contacted the former clients with an offer to purchase the land. No sale took place, but the court found that the action created a concurrent conflict of interest between Egbert’s role as a real estate investor and as delinquent tax attorney. The court announced the censure on March 24.

The Memphis Bar Association (MBA) will host its annual memorial service on April 24, beginning at noon CDT, for members who have died over the past year. The in-person event will take place at Calvary Episcopal Church, 102 N. Second St., Memphis 38103. Learn more and see the list of attorneys being honored.

A news item in yesterday's TBA Today characterized the immigrant children affected by the cancellation of a legal services contract through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as being confined to the Memphis area. While the three agencies mentioned in the item are based in Memphis, they serve immigrant children located across the state.

After an initial attempt in February to cancel a contract for legal services for immigrant children, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has now fully canceled its contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provided federal funding for lawyers who represent unaccompanied immigrant children. The Daily Memphian reports that the decision will affect hundreds of children across the state who have legal representation through groups such as Latino Memphis, Advocates for Immigrant Rights (AIR) and Mid-South Immigration Advocates (MIA). “It’s an existential threat to our organization as it represents the vast majority of our budget for both our Memphis and Nashville offices,” said MIA legal director Sally Joyner. According to Joyner, last year’s federal contract was $902,346 or around 80% of MIA's budget. That money is going to have to be replaced somehow, she says, because groups still have ethical obligations to represent these children. The American Bar Association (ABA) also weighed in on the issue, saying, "Without specialized children’s programs and attorneys, many of these kids — some as young as toddlers — will be forced to navigate adversarial immigration proceedings alone. Legal services providers help ensure that children’s immigration proceedings are fair and efficient, alleviating undue burdens on judges and prosecutors, while protecting children’s due process rights." The Associated Press has more.

On Tuesday, Lee administration released its proposed budget amendment for FY 2025-2026, which includes an additional $17 million to fund the new plan for indigent representation in Tennessee. The TBA has worked closely with the Tennessee Supreme Court and the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) on securing funding for the new plan, and this issue was the top priority last week during attorneys’ meetings with legislators during TBA’s Day on the Hill.

TBA President Ed Lanquist Jr. reacted to the development saying, “The TBA applauds Gov. Bill Lee and his administration for prioritizing indigent representation by funding the AOC’s Indigent Representation Plan. I believe the AOC’s new and innovative plan will address the current shortage of attorneys willing to accept appointments to represent the indigent, by establishing more competitive and predictable attorney compensation structures. The TBA is especially grateful to Chief Justice Holly Kirby, the Tennessee Supreme Court and the Administrative Office of the Courts for their leadership and partnership in helping spotlight this critical issue, and we look forward to working with them and the Tennessee General Assembly to ensure this funding is in the final budget passed by the legislature.”

The budget process in Tennessee is a three part process: (1) in early February, the governor unveils his initial proposed budget in conjunction with the State of the State Address; (2) in late March/early April, the administration unveils a budget amendment, which compliments and makes adjustments to the initial budget; and (3) the Tennessee General Assembly works with the administration to finalize the budget, which must pass the House and Senate before they adjourn for the year. The TBA will continue working to ensure the new plan is funded. Learn more about the plan and indigent representation in Tennessee.