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| Legal News |
| Filling seat is an open process; speculation has begun |
| Knoxville lawyer Pamela Reeves explains in her News Sentinel column
how members of the public can have a voice in this process of filling the 6th Judicial District Criminal Court seat following the resignation of Judge Richard Baumgartner.
Meanwhile, speculation has begun as to who might apply. Columnist Georgiana Vines
says
prosecutors in the Knox County District Attorney General's Office are prominent among those being named as a possible successor, as well as General Sessions Court Judges Patricia Long and Andrew Jackson VI.
"I think there is going to be eight to 10 to 12 people who will submit names," District Attorney General Randy Nichols said Friday. |
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| Judge faces complaints from Hamilton County lawyers |
| Complaints filed by Chattanooga attorneys Ben McGowan and Hank Hill allege that Hamilton County General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon has violated defendants' constitutional rights by stepping beyond his position as judge and into a police role from the bench. Moon says he will respond to the Court of the Judiciary about both complaints.
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Read more from the Chattanooga Times Free Press
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| Disaster plan in place for Memphis courts |
| Tom Gould, clerk of court at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, learned a lesson after Hurricane Katrina. "The absence of a court system down there was really significant," he said. So he is working to make sure thatthe federal courts in Memphis would be up and running within 72 hours of any disaster that makes the courthouse inoperable.
Part of the emergency plan is to place computer servers and portable equipment such as laptops at various places around Shelby County, including court workers' homes. |
Learn more in the Commercial Appeal
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| Editorial: Commission should try mediation before suing |
| The Sevier County Commission is set to vote today on whether to hire a lawyer to sue the city of Pigeon Forge to expand its water system. "This would be a mistake," the Mountain Press writes in an editorial, "an effort to spend taxpayer money to have the court system decide an issue that should be negotiated in good faith by all parties." |
Read the editorial
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| Shelby County trains recruits using volunteer drunks |
| In the Shelby County Sheriff's Office's "Wet Labs," it's not hard to find volunteers. After all, the job involves being served free alcohol -- by police who then give the volunteers sobriety tests. The lab is part of the academy is to train reserve police recruits. |
The Commercial Appeal was there
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| Politics |
| Business group forms to back tort revisions |
| A group of business and health care executives has formed a nonprofit advocacy organization to support Gov. Bil Haslam's proposed tort law revisions. The group, Tennesseans for Economic Growth, will be led by Doug Buttrey, a former lobbyist for FedEx and chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
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Read more from the Nashville Post
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| U.S. Supreme Court |
| Court: Fed documents can be released |
| The Supreme Court decided today not to stop the release of Federal Reserve Board documents identifying financial companies that received Fed loans to survive the financial crisis.
The high court, without comment, refused to hear an appeal from an association of bankers trying to keep the information from becoming public. |
WRCB-TV carried this AP story
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| Can inmate be executed after mailroom mix-up? |
| The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a law firm's mailroom mix-up that resulted in a missed deadline bars the habeas appeal of a death row inmate.
At issue in Maples v. Allen is whether Cory Maples can file a habeas appeal alleging ineffective assistance of counsel even though Sullivan & Cromwell failed to appeal an adverse ruling within the 42-day deadline. A letter addressed to two associates who were representing Maples had left the firm, and the unopened mail was returned to the court clerk along with a note, "Return to Sender -- Left Firm." |
ABAJournal.com connects you to more
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| Tenn. Government |
| Ethics Commission has no quorum with invalid appointments |
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The Tennessee Ethics Commission now has only two members on its six-member board and cannot hold meetings to enforce state ethics laws because there is no quorum. Then-Gov. Bredesen attempted to fill the two vacancies in November 2010, nominating lawyers Houston Gordon of Covington and Frank Barnett of Knoxville.
But state law says the appointments must be confirmed by the state House and Senate within 30 days if the Legislature is in session and, if not, within 30 days after the legislative session begins. The session began Jan. 8 and there has been no effort to have the Gordon and Barnett appointments confirmed.
That means the appointments have lapsed and are invalid, said Becky Bradley, director of the commission. |
Read more in the News Sentinel
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| Passages |
| Warren Christopher dies |
| Former Clinton White House Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher died Friday at 85. He was a successful lawyer and public servant, serving in the late 1960s as a deputy attorney general in the administration of Lyndon Johnson. |
The Jackson Sun carried this AP story
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| TBA Member Services |
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