If you plan to attend the 2024 TBA Convention but have not yet booked your hotel, time is running out! The TBA hotel room block at the historic Peabody Hotel in Memphis will close Wednesday. Book now to take advantage of our special discounted rate.

ABA President Mary Smith is asking the ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence to study the prevalence and impact of bar admission questions that require survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking to disclose their involvement in legal and administrative proceedings. The ABA Journal reports that three U.S. senators raised the issue in a letter to Smith, saying that character and fitness questions on bar applications often require would-be lawyers to disclose whether they have been a party to legal or administrative proceedings. The letter also points out that in some states, broad wording may require survivors to disclose campus sexual misconduct complaints or protection orders related to a domestic violence or sexual assault.

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision ruled that a separate hearing is not required when police seize cars loaned to drivers accused of drug crimes. Two Alabama women loaned their cars to individuals who later used them in drug crimes. They had argued that they were entitled to a preliminary hearing to determine whether police could retain their cars during the forfeiture process. The court said Congress and the states have long authorized police to seize and hold personal property pending a forfeiture hearing, without separate preliminary hearings. The ABA Journal has the story.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the "Transparency In Charges for Key Events Ticketing (TICKET) Act," which would require event ticket sellers to disclose the total cost of tickets upfront to consumers, including so-called hidden fees. According to The Hill, lawmakers say the bill is aimed at increasing transparency in the live event ticket marketplace by requiring the full cost of event tickets to be disclosed to consumers upfront. The bill also seeks to ban sales of tickets that sellers do not have and guarantee refunds for event cancellations, according to a release detailing the measure. The bill also has been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

Kingsport City Manager Chris McCartt and Deputy City Manager Ryan McReynolds have announced that the new $19 million Kingsport Justice Center expansion and renovation, funded by $13.4 million in city bonds and $5.6 million in Sullivan County bonds, should be complete and ready for use no later than May 2026. The Times News reports that the project will add more than 17,000 square feet to the late 1980s building and put county offices still in the old City Hall under the same roof as city offices, Kingsport City Police and various courtrooms. Of the facility's 17,600 square feet, about 9,000 is on the first floor with the remaining 8,600 on the second floor.

FBI agents recently raided two East Tennessee residences, including a Carson-Newman University dorm room, which investigators say were part of a scheme allowing foreign technology workers to work for U.S. companies under the stolen identities of American residents. According to the search warrant, a laptop farm is a "location hosting multiple computers all connecting to the internet through the same network, wherein individuals at the laptop farm assist remote individuals with logging on to the computers." This makes it appear like the remote individual is working at the laptop farm to avoid suspicion from their employer. Knox News has more on the story. Read the school's statement about the situation to WBIR.

Seventy years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the "separate but equal" doctrine unconstitutional in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, ending segregation in schools. Chalkbeat has several articles on the impacts of that decision in Tennessee.

Cleotha Abston has been sentenced to 80 years in prison for three charges related to the 2021 rape of Alicia Franklin. Shelby County Criminal Court Division 7 Judge Lee Coffee handed down three consecutive sentences: 40 years for aggravated rape, 20 years for aggravated kidnapping and 20 years for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He will not be eligible for parole on the rape or kidnapping charges, but has release eligibility after serving 85% of his firearm possession sentence. He cannot appeal his sentence because he agreed to it, though he can appeal his trial conviction. The Daily Memphian reports that Abston was not charged in the Franklin rape case until after he was charged in the September 2022 death of Memphis teacher Eliza Fletcher. Due to a testing backlog, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had not tested Franklin’s sexual-assault kit prior to Fletcher’s abduction and death.

St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital on Monday filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court, challenging the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission’s decision to grant approval for Vanderbilt Rutherford Hospital, a proposed 42-bed, acute care facility to be built near Murfreesboro. The Tennessee Lookout reports that the commission’s February decision marked a sharp reversal of an earlier decision by an administrative judge, who in 2023, denied Vanderbilt a so-called certificate of need, siding with three area hospitals who disputed a new hospital in the same market was necessary. TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center and Williamson Medical Center have contested plans for a new Vanderbilt facility but have not yet filed legal challenges.

Dr. Laura Andreson, a Franklin OB-GYN who has sued Tennessee over its abortion ban, will challenge incumbent Republican Rep. Jake McCalmon for House District 63, running as a Democrat. The Tennessean reports that Andreson's campaign platform heavily focuses on reproductive rights and health care, the issue that drove her to become more politically involved in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision ushered in Tennessee's abortion law. Andreson joined a group of physicians lobbying lawmakers for increased exceptions to Tennessee's near-total ban, expressing concern about patient health and criminal liability for doctors.