A federal appeals court this week reinstated a looming deadline for businesses to comply with a new law aimed at cracking down on money laundering, Bloomberg Tax reports. The U.S. 5th Circuit on Monday lifted an injunction that had blocked enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act, which requires an estimated 32.6 million entities to disclose who owns and controls their businesses by Jan. 1, 2025. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network had pushed back the deadline to Jan. 13, 2025, after the injunction was imposed earlier this month.

Congress is putting another $100 billion into disaster relief funding, the Associated Press reports. The funds include $29 million for FEMA to help those recovering from recent hurricanes, $21 billion to help farmers, $12 billion for community recovery through Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants, $8 billion for rebuilding damaged roads and highways, and $2.2 billion for low-interest loans for businesses, nonprofits and homeowners trying to rebuild after a disaster. The funding is in a bill to keep the government operating through March 14, 2025. President Joe Biden signed it into law on Saturday.

Nashville Judge I'Ashea Myles granted a temporary injunction Monday, stopping the Tennessee Department of Agriculture from enforcing a rule that would have drastically altered hemp sales across the state, reports WKRN. The rule was set to take effect on Dec. 26, prohibiting sales of THCA products that could convert to 0.3% or more THC, with some exceptions for licensed sellers. The injunction, granted until Feb. 18, 2025, follows a lawsuit from the Tennessee Growers Coalition, which argues the ban could harm local hemp businesses. The coalition plans to return to court in February to seek a permanent injunction, WBIR reports.

President Joe Biden granted commutations to nearly every individual on federal death row Monday morning, replacing 37 of the 40 death sentences with life without the possibility of parole. Biden's administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions, and the President said he is “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.” He did however let three death sentences remain in place: Robert Bowers, convicted for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue; Dylann Roof, convicted of the shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the Boston Marathon bombing, CBS reports.

The TBA Intellectual Property Section launches its 2025 webcast series with the first installment on Feb. 5, 2025, focused on subject matter eligibility updates for AI-related inventions. On July 17, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued an update on patent subject matter eligibility to assist eligibility evaluations in patent applications and patents involving inventions related to AI technology. The webcast, beginning at noon CST, will provide an overview of the guidance update, including examples issued in conjunction with the update and community comments submitted. Make plans to join Knoxville lawyer Lauren Sherwood with Bookoff McAndrews on this one-hour webcast to learn more.

From August through November of this year, Belmont College of Law’s public interest and pro bono clinics provided $35,150 in free legal services –– calculated based on a standard rate of $250 an hour. Across 10 clinics, these services led to transformative outcomes for clients, including 24 powers of attorney for care of a minor child completed, 405 non-conviction expungement filings, 30 estate planning documents prepared, over 110 clients assisted and more than half a million dollars in court fees waived. This year, the law school set a goal of expanding its clinic offerings into new practice areas to better serve its Nashville neighbors. By also expanding its network of partnering organizations, Belmont Law’s public interest program is able to more readily identify communities in need, which were not previously on its radar, the school reports.

A new study from Belmont Innovation Labs, “Every Child Tennessee: Foster Youth in Tennessee 2024 Landscape Study — Transitioning into Adulthood,” highlights the crisis in Tennessee youth who are aging out of foster care. According to the study, 70 to 80% of children aging out of the state’s foster care system without proper support are facing challenges such as homelessness, addiction, imprisonment or trafficking by the age of 21. The research found that one “critical factor” that determined successful outcomes for those aging out of the system was “the presence of a stable adult relationship.” WSMV has more on the study, which drew on research over the last few decades.

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently reinstated five lawyers who had been suspended on March 4, 2024, for failing to pay the state professional privilege tax. Pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 9, Section 26, attorneys who are deemed noncompliant for 90 days or more are summarily suspended. Those who since have complied with the rule are noted as reinstated. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for tax violations in 2024 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

Regional grocery chain K-VA-T Food Stores, known as Food City, has agreed to settle government allegations under the False Claims Act (FCA) related to its dispensing of opioids and other controlled substances. The lawsuit alleges that, from 2011 through 2018, 24 Food City store pharmacies dispensed opioids and other controlled substances that were medically unnecessary, lacked a legitimate medical purpose or medically accepted indication, and/or were dispensed to invalid prescriptions, and that, as a result, Food City submitted false claims to federal health care programs. Under the settlement, Food City will pay the United States $8,488,378, and will pay an additional $78,621 to the states of Virginia and Kentucky for claims paid to Food City by state Medicaid programs. Food City reached a similar settlement with Tennessee in 2023. Read more in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Dec. 23 suspended 15 attorneys for failure to pay the annual registration fee; nine 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. See the list of all lawyers suspended and reinstated for fee and IOLTA violations in 2024 — including 21 recently reinstated — or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.