TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Mar 26, 2026

A three-year legal battle over the new Memphis Art Museum was dismissed by Shelby County Chancellor Melanie Taylor Jefferson last week, with plaintiffs Friends for our Riverfront and heirs of the city's founders arguing the $180 million museum violated restrictions on how riverfront land should be used. The Daily Memphian reports that the lawsuit, filed in 2023, claimed the museum's construction conflicted with terms set by city founders in 1819 and 1820, which designated the land as a public promenade, and violated easement terms for a public Bluff Walk. The plaintiffs plan to appeal the ruling, while defendants — the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and the City of Memphis — maintain the museum is consistent with the land's public purpose and that the current administration has the right to determine how the riverfront is used.