State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, has filed a bill that would create a 180-day window for former incarcerated individuals to pay court restitution. In announcing the measure, Gardenhire said of newly released individuals: you are “wearing a big red letter on your forehead, and it’s hard to get a job. Nobody trusts you.” Then all of a sudden they have to start paying fines. “It just puts them further behind.” WKRN reports that fees and costs vary by case but generally run as low as a few hundred dollars to as high as $50,000 dollars. The bill currently has bipartisan support.

U.S. lawmakers have cut a proposal that would have made the federal judiciary's PACER online court records system free. The omission is a setback for advocates of the Open Courts Act, who had been pushing to get the stalled, bipartisan legislation attached to the omnibus spending measure. The funding bill does boosts overall spending on the judiciary by nearly 6% to $8.461 billion in fiscal year 2023. Reuters looks at what could be next for the proposal.

The TBA will close at noon CST tomorrow and remain closed through Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday. The office will reopen Tuesday at 8 a.m. There will be no issues of TBA Today published on Friday or Monday. Online CLE programming will remain available throughout the holidays. Don't miss our many Year End CLE programs!

Grab some popcorn and join your colleagues for a theater-style event designed to help you meet your CLE requirements before the end of the year. Live and in-person, the TBA’s Last Minute CLE Watch Party will show five dual (ethics) hours of the most popular CLE online videos on the big screen. Join the party on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. CST in the auditorium of the Nashville Public Library, 615 Church St. Don’t forget to use the three prepaid CLE credits that come with your TBA membership. Not a member? Join today!

From tips on knowing when to move to a server to best practices for hardware maintenance, the TBA’s Practice Management Center has you covered. See the full list of resources for opening, building, managing and protecting your firm. If you need more help, TBA has a dedicated email tbapmc@affinityconsulting.com for members to get expert advice.

A Tennessee judge on Friday promised to rule quickly on a request for public access to records that detail the treatment of a death row prisoner who injured himself while on suicide watch last fall. In a lawsuit filed in Davidson County Chancery Court, inmate Henry Hodges accused the state of providing inadequate medical and mental health care and of cruel and unusual punishment once he returned to the prison from the hospital. The state has asked for a court order that would protect broad categories of documents from public disclosure, including all video recordings of Hodges’ treatment while in prison. The Associated Press and the Nashville Banner are asking for those records to be opened. Former TBA Communication Section Chair Paul McAdoo, an attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, is representing the AP.

Lawmakers are making a last-ditch effort to pass legislation by the end of the year to reduce the sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The Hill reports that Senate Democrats are expressing optimism about the chances of passing something as part of a larger funding package. Currently, an individual can be sentenced to at least five years for possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine and 10 years for possession of five kilograms, while individuals can be sentenced to five years for possession of 28 grams of crack cocaine and 10 years for 280 grams. This 18-to-1 ratio has been law since Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the disparity from 100-to-1. Lawmakers are now seeking to reduce the gap to 2.5-to-1. In related news, on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed federal prosecutors to end disparities in sentencing when charging offenses, Reuters reports.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts today temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending the pandemic-era Title 42 immigration policy, USA Today reports. The decision was the result of an emergency appeal filed by 19 conservative states earlier today. The states had asked the justices to block a lower court ruling requiring President Joe Biden to end use of Title 42 by Wednesday. Roberts ordered the administration to respond by 5 p.m. EST tomorrow. SCOTUSblog reports on the filing from the states.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has issued two orders proposing amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure and Rules of Criminal Procedure. Both would take effect in July 2023 if approved by the General Assembly. The amendment to the civil rules would change Rule 5.02 dealing with service and filing of pleadings and other papers. The amendment to the criminal rules would change Rule 49, dealing with serving and filing papers.

The Memphis Bar Association (MBA) held its Annual Meeting last week at the Memphis Botanic Garden. During the meeting, outgoing president Tannera Gibson passed the gavel to incoming president Jennifer Sink, chief legal officer for the city of Memphis. Adam Johnson took over as vice president while Lauran Stimac took office as secretary and treasurer. In addition, the evening featured the presentation of three awards. Terrence Reed received the Judge Jerome Turner Lawyer’s Lawyer Award. Amber Floyd received the Sam A. Myar Jr. Memorial Award and the W.J. Michael Cody Access to Justice Award. Read more about the recipients in releases from the MBA.