A new Vanderbilt University poll, which surveyed 1,003 registered voters in Tennessee, found that those who favor a woman’s right to an abortion slightly outnumber those who do not — a change from recent years, Axios reports. The poll also found that voters on a bipartisan basis support in vitro fertility treatments. With regard to gun control legislation, most Tennesseans favor keeping guns away from people who are a danger to themselves or others, but are split on allowing teachers to carry concealed guns on school campuses. Other notable findings show low approval for state government and majority approval for legalizing recreational cannabis. WKRN reports on that finding.

The Trial Court Vacancy Commission met yesterday in Gallatin to consider nine applicants for a circuit court judge vacancy in the 18th Judicial District, which serves Sumner County. After holding a public hearing and conducting public interviews, the commission selected the following three nominees to forward to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration: 18th Judicial District Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer S. Nichols and Tara A. Wyllie, and Sumner County Circuit Court Clerk Kathryn Strong. The new judicial position was created by the Tennessee General Assembly through Public Chapter No. 600, enacted on March 27. The position will be effective as of Sept. 1.

The TBA and the Tennessee Alliance of Black Lawyers (TABL) will host a joint CLE during next month’s TBA Convention focused on the nuanced relationship between criminal justice and other areas of the law. The program will take place on June 13 from 4-5:30 p.m. CDT in the Venetian Room of the Peabody Hotel. Speakers include Davidson County Magistrate Judge Jerice Glanton, Memphis-Shelby County Chief Magistrate Judge Aftan Strong, Johnika Geeter with the Geeter Law Office, and Will Perry with Butler Snow. Princess Rogers, with the Davidson County District Attorney’s office, will moderate the discussion. Learn more about this and other CLE being offered at the annual Convention.

The annual Bench Bar Luncheon will take place June 13 as part of the TBA’s Convention. Lawyers and judges from across the state will gather to recognize judicial service and hear from Memphis lawyer Charles Newman, who served as one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyers during the sanitation workers strike in the spring of 1968. It was the strike that brought King to Memphis, where the day after addressing workers, he was felled by an assassin’s bullet. Also at the lunch, Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Holly Kirby will be recognized with the TBA’s Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award and Senior Judge J. Daniel Breen will receive the Judge Pamela L. Reeves Tennessee Professionalism Award, given jointly by the TBA and the Tennessee American Inns of Court. Make plans now to join your colleagues at this annual favorite!

A federal judge on Sunday blocked the Biden administration from fully implementing a new rule that would require gun dealers to obtain licenses and conduct background checks when selling firearms at gun shows and online. Amarillo-based Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk temporarily restrained the so-called “gun show loophole” rule from being enforced in Texas or against members of several gun rights groups, Reuters reports. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti recently joined 21 states in a similar suit opposing the new rule. That action was filed in an Arkansas federal court.

The Tennessee Access to Justice Commission’s Justice Bus traveled to McMinnville earlier this month to provide legal advice to local residents. The bus is designed to be a mobile law office that brings technology to rural and underserved communities. Pro Bono Attorney Coordinator Kyle Stack and Justice Bus Coordinator Alyvia Bush, both with the Administrative Office of the Courts, were on hand to oversee the legal clinic, the Southern Standard reports.

The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Council of the Section of Legal Education adopted a new policy statement that urges states to "create diverse pathways to licensure." That move deviates from more than a century of backing the use of bar exams for lawyer licensing, Reuters reports. The bar exam has come under fire in recent years for creating racial disparities in testing outcomes. The new policy statement also calls on states to create licensing structures that “mitigate the disparate exclusion from the profession of racial and ethnic minorities and individuals of low socioeconomic status.”

The Shelby County Commission is set to meet with county attorneys in a closed session today to seek legal advice before meeting to consider cuts to vacant positions in the county sheriff’s office, the Daily Memphian reports. Last week, Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said he would sue the commission if it cuts funding for 441 unfilled positions in his budget. Bonner argues that state law prevents the commission from cutting the positions.

A lawsuit filed by a Jewish couple alleging religious discrimination in Tennessee adoption law will now move forward after the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear the state's appeal, the Tennessean reports. Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram sued the state arguing they were unconstitutionally discriminated against after a state-funded Christian adoption agency refused to work with them. The case was initially dismissed but an appellate court overturned that ruling. The Supreme Court’s decision not to review the appellate ruling allows the suit to go forward.

A new documentary "STAX: Soulsville U.S.A." tells the story of the rise and fall of the iconic Memphis record label. The four-part series, which will air on HBO and stream on Max, is a “story of groundbreaking music, hard truths and unhappy endings,” according to the Commercial Appeal. Spoiler alert: the series concludes — not with the launch of the Stax Museum (the site of a past TBA Convention event) or the success of the Stax Music Academy or Soulsville Charter School — but with the original studio razed, an empty lot serving as a painful reminder of what once thrived in the heart of South Memphis. “I wanted us to wrestle with two truths,” says the documentary’s director, Jamila Wignot. “There’s the beauty and the legacy of the music, and there’s the fact that it wasn’t allowed to live on. To me, it was important to hold both of those, because that’s the honest story.”