TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Oct 27, 2025

Judge Kenny Armstrong, one of three Black judges among Tennessee’s 24 intermediate appellate judges, will retire from the Court of Appeals in February. The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments is accepting applications for his seat through Nov. 5. A Tipton County native and Duke Law graduate, Armstrong previously served in the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. and as clerk and master of the Shelby County Chancery Court before his 2014 appointment to the appellate bench, The Tennessee Journal reports. Armstrong dissented in a 2-1 decision in June that upheld a state law cutting the size of the Nashville Metro Council in half. He argued that the article in the Tennessee Constitution establishing that county commissions can have no more than 25 members specifically does not apply to merged city-county governments like the one in Nashville, which has 40 members.