Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, along with attorneys general from 14 other states, has submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, emphasizing the need for fair and unbiased regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial services sector. The letter urges the department to focus solely on risks to financial reliability and consumer protection rather than politicizing AI regulation or blocking state laws. Read the letter or a press release about the effort.

The Nashville office of Buchalter has announced that Talbott Ottinger has joined the firm as a shareholder and will be the new chair of the Real Estate Practice Group. Ottinger will focus on commercial real estate and business transactions, including corporate structure, entity formation, and asset purchases and sales. He regularly advises clients with capital raises, joint ventures, the purchase and sale of real estate, financing and real estate leases. Buchalter is a full-service business law firm based in Los Angeles with offices in California, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah and Washington. Read more in a release. The Nashville Post reports that Ottinger's previous firm, the Green Hills-based Ottinger Law Group, will cease operations.

The Davidson County state trial court judges have elected Chancellor Anne C. Martin to serve as presiding judge beginning Sept. 1. Martin will succeed Judge Angelita Dalton who served in the role for the past two years. The 20th Judicial District covers Davidson County and includes eight circuit courts, four chancery courts and six criminal courts. Martin was first elected to the Chancery Court to fill an unexpired term in 2018 and then to a full eight-year term in 2022. In 2019, the Tennessee Supreme Court appointed her as the Business Court Docket judge. Judge David Briley will serve as presiding judge pro tempore for the year. Read more in a release from the court.

Earlier this summer, Chattanooga area students participated in a unique program sponsored by the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society. “The Supreme Court and My Hometown” is a two-week intensive summer camp that focuses on an important court case that originated in students’ hometown. The Chattanooga camp was sponsored by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the society. Judge Curtis L. Collier co-led the effort. Students studied the case of Ed Johnson, a young Black man who was falsely accused of rape and tried and sentenced to death in 1906. Lawyers successfully convinced the Supreme Court to stay the execution but before the case was heard, a mob stormed the jail where Johnson was being held and lynched him on the Walnut Street Bridge. As a capstone project, the students designed educational panels about the case that will be displayed in the federal courthouse. Collier writes about the program in the Hamilton County Herald.

The Tennessee Attorney General's (AG) office hired Memphis lawyer and former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton earlier this summer to review Tennessee State University (TSU) financials and corporate governance, the Tennessean reports. The probe was requested by TSU's newly appointed board of trustees "in order for us to continue to move the university forward" said chair Dakasha Winter. Gov. Bill Lee signed off on the appointment and in a letter directed Stanton to review “policies, procedures, protocols, fiscal records, capital expenditures, capital master planning, and corporate governance” from 2021 to present. The letter also suggested that “litigation to protect TSU's interests” may be required. This review comes after the state spent millions of dollars on audits that found leadership issues at TSU but no evidence of fraud or malfeasance. Stanton, an attorney with Butler Snow, previously was appointed by the state to conduct a review of its lethal injection procedures, and was tapped in May by Metro Nashville to review a police oversight complaint.

A newly expanded Hamilton County Jail is set to open this week following $32 million In improvements, Chattanoogan.com reports. County Sheriff Austin Garrett said booking of prisoners would begin Tuesday afternoon after a ceremony with local officials. The jail will feature an “elaborate body scan” to deter drug smuggling and 400 security cameras for surveillance. Garrett said the renovations were kept below the projected cost. The facility in Silverdale opened in 2021 and currently houses 1,100 inmates. In related news, the county recently received a $250,000 grant through the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program to create a treatment pilot program that will offer medications and therapeutic support for incarcerated individuals struggling with opioid use. Mayor Weston Wamp announced that initiative.

The Nashville Youth Campus for Empowerment (NYCE) broke ground last week on a new 14-acre facility, which will replace the current juvenile detention center located on Woodland Street near Nissan Stadium, WSMV reports. NYCE will be the nation's first family-oriented, trauma-informed center, "redefining" how young people and their families are served by the juvenile justice system, according to the Juvenile Court Clerk’s office. In addition to serving as the home of the Davidson County Juvenile Court and a pre-trial housing facility for justice-involved youth, the center will house resources and agencies that can provide immediate service delivery to families in need along with green space, courtyards and spacious meeting rooms. Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway, who proposed the new facility in 2016, adds "this investment will pay off exponentially through improved public safety and positive outcomes for youth in our community.”

Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick, community-outreach coordinator for Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, knows first-hand the many challenges victims of crime and their families face. Her son was shot and killed in her backyard. She later applied for victim reimbursement from the state’s Criminal Injuries Compensation program, which she found to be confusing, discouraging and intimidating, the Daily Memphian reports. Muhammad-McCormick successfully advocated for improvements to the fund this past legislative session, including extending the time frame for reporting a crime, and expanding the list of family members eligible for reimbursement and free mental health services. Muhammad-McCormick also works to expand general awareness about the fund. An upcoming event planned for Aug. 17 in Memphis will provide one such opportunity,. “Healed People Heal People” will take place at Centenary United Methodist Church, 584 E. McLemore Ave., Memphis 38106.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, along with a coalition of 14 other state attorneys general led by Kansas, have filed a federal lawsuit to halt the Biden administration's plan to extend Affordable Care Act benefits to undocumented immigrants, includin 100,000 so-called "Dreamers," who were brought into the country as children. The final rule, scheduled to go into effect on Nov. 1, would grant taxpayer-subsidized health plans to more than 200,000 immigrants, including thousands in Tennessee. The suit argues that the plan violates the provisions of the law, which limit eligibility to U.S. citizens, nationals and individuals "lawfully present" in the country. Read more in a release. 

The Tennessee Supreme Court has referred the case of Jefferson County attorney James Richard Scroggins to the Board of Professional Responsibility for “whatever action” it “may deem warranted.” The court took the action after Scroggins “pled guilty to and was adjudged guilty of Driving Under the Influence, a Class A misdemeanor, in violation of T.C.A. § 55-10-401” in the Jefferson County General Sessions Court.