A Shelby County woman contesting a permanent revocation of her voting rights must now take her case to a Special Three-Judge Trial Court, the Daily Memphian reports. Pamela Moses says she was unaware that pleading guilty in 2015 to a felony charge related to evidence tampering would result in permanently losing her voting rights. She filed paperwork to restore her right to vote in 2019 and, in January, was sentenced to six years in prison for illegally registering to vote. Those charges were ultimately dismissed in April. Shelby County Circuit Judge Felicia Corbin-Johnson yesterday determined that Moses’ case to restore her voting rights was not within the jurisdiction of the district attorney’s office and that the attorney general would need to be the opposing party in the matter. The three-judge panel will be selected by the Supreme Court and will consist of Corbin-Johnson and trial judges from the Middle and Eastern Districts. 

Kentanji Brown Jackson was today sworn in as the first Black female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Tennessean reports. She replaces retired Justice Stephen Breyer, who yesterday informed President Joe Biden that he would officially retire today, hours after the high court released the last two rulings of its current term. Jackson, a Harvard-trained lawyer and former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was confirmed to the Supreme Court in April on a 53-47 vote by the U.S. Senate. Chief Justice John Roberts administered one oath of office to Jackson and Breyer – for whom Jackson clerked more than 20 years ago – administered the other. With that, Jackson became the 104th associate justice – marking the first time women and people of color outnumber white men on the court.

The Tennessee Supreme Court’s Justice for All Initiative, Belmont College of Law, the American Job Center, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity’s Omicron Sigma Lambda Chapter and state Rep. Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna, held an expungement clinic in Smyrna yesterday. The clinic, held at Parkway Baptist Church, provided an opportunity for those with criminal records to speak to attorneys about removing these infractions from their records. Also, according to an Alpha Phi Alpha representative, Krispy Kreme, Bethel University and Allied Universal were on site offering jobs to those whose records were expunged. A similar clinic will be held at Motlow Community College in the fall. The Nashville Post previewed the event.

Don’t miss this year's virtual Juvenile Law Basics forum, featuring the information you need to stay on top of developments in this practice area. This program is designed for newer Juvenile & Children's Law practitioners and will feature topics such as adverse childhood experiences and secondary trauma, guardian ad litem basics and neglect actions, guardian ad litem work in termination of parental rights cases, and much more. The forum will take place via Zoom on Aug. 19 from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. CDT. Learn more and register for the program.

The Memphis Bar Association has released the results from its Judicial Qualification Poll for Shelby County’s contested judicial and court clerks’ races on the Aug. 4 ballot. All licensed, practicing attorneys in the county were polled and 1,199 participated in the survey. “The work of our judges ranks at the very top of importance for the stability of the American System of Justice. Lawyers appear every day in our courts and are best able to determine who is most qualified to preside over the cases brought by citizens seeking justice,” added David Wade, chair of the Judicial Practice & Procedures Committee which oversaw the poll. Read results of the poll.

Stacey Shrader Joslin, the TBA’s advertising, sponsorship and media content coordinator, is responsible for recruiting advertisers for the Tennessee Bar Journal and TBJ Select e-newsletter, section Connect e-newsletters and TBA.org; recruiting sponsors for CLE programs and events such as convention and mock trial; helping produce the TBA Today newsletter three days a week; writing several standing features for the Tennessee Bar Journal; and regularly contributing content for TBA.org. Stacey is chief of the TBA’s Grammar Police – she can spot an error in a news story from a mile away! She also loves reading, watching crime shows of all varieties and traveling!

The #TeamTBA series offers members a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the TBA and how each staff members makes the association run. Check back every Wednesday for a new staff profile in TBA Today and on the TBA's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Lewis Thomason’s Knoxville office has announced the addition of six attorneys to its statewide Health Care Practice Group. “This is exciting for our firm and for the city of Knoxville,” said Rodney Fields, managing shareholder of the Knoxville office and chairman of the firm's Board of Directors. “Health care law is a growing practice in the Knoxville area, so we are pleased for the possibilities in adding these six accomplished and capable attorneys to our team.” Attorneys joining the Knoxville office are Heidi Barcus, Jeff Thompson, Gina Vogel, Hillary Jones, Jason Long and Meagan Davis Collver. Read the press release.

The TBA is hitting the road for its biggest Court Square Series yet! Between August and May 2023, be on the lookout for programming in a city near you that will provide networking opportunities, developments and updates in multiple areas of the law and much more. The next six stops in the series will kick off in Hendersonville on Aug. 24, followed by Greeneville on Sept. 7, Covington on Sept. 21, Jamestown on Oct. 26, Clarksville on Nov. 2 and Savannah on Nov. 16. Get more information on these events from TBA CLE.

Attorney David Price has been selected as the University of Tennessee College of Law’s new assistant dean for finance, administration and operations. Price will oversee the College of Law business office with overall responsibility for budgeting, human resources and facilities. He replaces Teresa Peterson who retired earlier this year. Price earned his law degree from the Nashville School of Law and has more than 18 years of experience in administration and finance operations with more than 14 of those years in higher education. He was previously the assistant director of the financial information office with the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business. He will assume his new role July 1. Read more from the College of Law.

Judges in Louisiana and Utah have temporarily blocked abortion bans triggered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, while a Texas judge has also temporarily blocked an abortion ban that was passed before the Roe decision. In Louisiana, two abortion rights groups argued it was unclear which of the state’s trigger laws are in effect and what conduct is banned. A district court judge granted them a temporary restraining order until July 8. In Utah, Planned Parenthood argued the state’s trigger laws violate the state constitution. They were granted a two-week temporary restraining order. Abortion providers in Texas filed suit to block an abortion ban passed before the Roe v. Wade decision. A judge temporarily blocked the law, allowing abortions up to six weeks into pregnancy to continue in the state. The ABA Journal has a breakdown of lawsuits that have been filed.