A Tennessee Registry of Election Finance board member is criticizing the Attorney General’s Office over its investigation of two political groups, challenging the veracity of its report and raising questions about possible bias. According to the Tennessee Lookout, registry board member Tom Lawless says the attorney general’s office “did not do even a remotely close to thorough investigation. They just went through the motions.” He plans to call leaders from the Tennessee Constitutional Republicans and the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans to come before the board and explain how they are operating without registering with the state as political action committees. Lawless previously complained about the time it took the attorney general’s office to conduct the investigation.

Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy and County Mayor Lee Harris has announced that judicial commissioners will now be able to view a defendant’s detailed criminal history before setting initial bail. This is a change from current practice, under which commissioners receive limited general information from the county government’s pretrial services office. Mulroy said although commissioners may call for more detailed information, not all do and it is harder to keep track of information shared over the phone. He said the change is being made to try to avoid cases in which a person is let out on bail and then reoffends, “sometimes even violently.” The new process will be implemented for all violent offenses, the Daily Memphian reports.

An injunction barring the Biden administration's expansion of Title IX to transgender students will remain in effect after a three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the U.S. Department of Education’s appeal according to the Tennessean. Tennessee joined a group of six states to sue the administration and a federal judge in Kentucky imposed the injunction. The Nashville Banner reports that Judge Andre Mathis of Memphis dissented.

The American Bar Association (ABA) 2024 Annual Meeting in Chicago will feature the group’s first-ever Democracy Summit on Aug. 2. The program will be led by former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, co-chairs of the ABA Task Force for American Democracy. The task force will present its findings on the state of U.S. democracy as well as concrete steps for those in the legal profession to defend the rule of law in their local areas. Other elements of the meeting, which will run from July 31 through Aug. 6, include remarks by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the second ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice, awards presentations and programs on a range of legal topics. Get details in this release.

As of July 1, youth aged 15 and older in Tennessee may be tried in adult court for two nonviolent offenses: shoplifting of items valued over $1,000 with the intent to sell or fraudulently return the merchandise, or for stealing a firearm or attempting to do so. In the past, judges could decide to try a young person in adult court for violent or otherwise extreme offenses, the Nashville Banner reports. Davidson County Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway is questioning whether the law is necessary. “Organized retail crime was not on our radar as an issue for the youth that we serve.” The bill’s lead sponsor Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, says he backed the legislation because “smash and grabs in Memphis have reached a crisis point.”

Davidson County lawyer Wendy Sue O’Neill was reinstated to the practice of law on July 15. She had been on inactive status since April 23, 2015. The Board of Professional Responsibility reported that O’Neill’s petition for reinstatement was satisfactory.

The federal judiciary is considering whether new ethical guidance on the hiring of law clerks is needed after two judges hired a clerk who was accused of racist conduct and a number of judges threatened to not hire clerks from certain law schools. Reuters reports that the U.S. Judicial Conference revealed last week that it referred the question to its Committee on Codes of Conduct and asked its Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability to examine whether any rules should be modified to address the potential incompatibility of current policies governing judicial misconduct cases.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee touted school choice and the unity of Republican governors during a speech Tuesday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Lee has made school choice a priority for his administration and this week called it the “civil rights issue of our time.” Lee was the second Republican elected official from Tennessee to speak. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee spoke twice during the opening day of the convention: once to present the party platform and again to address delegates. The Tennessean has more, including Lee's full remarks.

According to multiple media reports, President Joe Biden is seriously considering calling for major changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, including term limits for justices and imposition of an ethics code. The proposals also could include a constitutional amendment to eliminate the broad immunity for presidents and other federal officeholders — something the court recently upheld — according to the Washington Post, which was the first to report the news based on a transcript of a call between Biden and members of the U.S. House Progressive Caucus. Biden reportedly told the group that he has been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months to develop a plan. Any changes would need to be approved by Congress. The Tennessean has more on the story.

Sumner County lawyer Joseph Timothy Zanger has received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court. The court found that Zanger made several procedural errors in handling an adoption case for one client and failed to obtain entry of a qualified domestic relations order for over three years for another client. These actions were determined to violate Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.16 and 3.2.