The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) today sent an open records request asking for more information about the McMinn County School Board of Education’s decision to ban the book “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” from eighth-grade curriculum. The graphic novel depicts interviews between the book’s author, Art Spiegelman, and his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. According to News Channel 9, McMinn County Schools chose to remove “Maus” for foul language and images of nudity and suicide. ACLU-TN staff attorney, Stella Yarbrough, says the decision “flies in the face of academic freedom.” Read more from ACLU-TN.

Judge John W. Campbell was today confirmed to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals – Western Section, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. Campbell was appointed to the position by Gov. Bill Lee on Jan. 12. Since 2012, Campbell has served as Criminal Court judge in the 30th Judicial District, which includes Shelby County. Prior to taking the bench, he worked as an Assistant District Attorney General in the 30th Judicial District from 1985 to 2012 and an Assistant Public Defender from 1984 to 1985. While an Assistant District Attorney General, he also was appointed a Special Assistant United States Attorney. “I am passionate about criminal justice, education, and the law,” Campbell said. “Becoming an appellate judge was always an aspiration, and I am very grateful to everyone who helped make this goal come to fruition.”

President Joe Biden’s nomination of Memphis attorney Andre Mathis to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals was today advanced by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Reuters reports. Lawmakers voted 12-10 to clear the way for Mathis’ nomination to be considered by the full Senate. The nomination of Mathis, a Butler Snow partner, was not supported by Tennessee Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, who claim the Biden administration failed to “meaningfully consult” with them. Historically, Mathis would have needed the votes of his home state’s senators to advance, but after Republican senators during the Trump administration did away with the “blue slip” process for appellate nominees, that support is no longer necessary to move forward.

The General Assembly today confirmed Nashville attorney Sarah Campbell to the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Tennessean reports. Campbell, Tennessee’s associate solicitor general, clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito until 2015 when she joined the Attorney General’s Office. "As a judge, I will be firmly neutral on the issues that come before me," Campbell said in recent interviews with lawmakers. "The role of a judge, in my view, is to decide cases based on neutral, objective principles that don't lend themselves to any one outcome or the other." The vote to confirm Campbell was nearly unanimous, with the lone dissenting vote cast by Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville. Johnson voiced concerns about the “partisan nature” of Campbell’s work in the attorney general’s office.

Laurence M. McMillan Jr. has announced that he will seek reelection as chancellor for the 19th Judicial District, serving Robertson and Montgomery counties, Main Street Clarksville reports. McMillan began his legal career in the Nashville office of Barnett and Alagia and continued his law practice after moving back to his hometown of Clarksville. He was appointed chancellor in December 2004 by former Gov. Phil Bredesen. McMillan was certified as a Civil Trial Specialist in 2001 by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and has served on its Board of Examiners. In 2014, he served as special judge on the Tennessee Court of Appeals for the Middle Section of Tennessee and also served on the Tennessee Supreme Court Worker’s Compensation Panel.

The Tennessee Supreme Court yesterday suspended Thomas Francis Jackson III from the practice of law for one year. A hearing panel found Jackson knowingly and repeatedly communicated with the opposing parties through their agents about the substance of the litigation without the consent of the attorneys representing the defendants and continued to do so after being instructed to communicate only with opposing counsel. The panel also found that, after being suspended from practicing law, Jackson advertised his professional services on the internet, met with a potential client about representation, sought to collect fees for professional services for which he had not been retained and failed to disclose his suspension.

Join TBA Director of Public Policy & Government Affairs Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorneys and TBA lobbyists Brad Lampley and Ashley Harbin for a brand new episode of TBA Legislative Updates. Tune in for news on the newest Tennessee Supreme Court Justice, House Majority Leader William Lamberth’s Truth in Sentencing measure, the state’s new deputy governor and more! Legislative Updates airs every Thursday on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Jonesborough attorney Michael Rasnake recently announced his candidacy for judge in Washington County General Sessions Court, Division III, the Johnson City Press reports. Rasnake attended the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and worked five years at the Public Defender’s Office in Jackson, followed by four years in private practice. He returned to Washington County in 2005 and joined the District Attorney’s Office. Rasnake is a founding member of the county’s Recovery Court, which he says will “ensure a smooth transition” when he transitions to Recovery Court judge. “My real dream is to take that same problem-solving model we use in Recovery Court and create a Family Treatment Court like other counties in our state,” Rasnake said.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, has asked Gov. Bill Lee to seek a federal disaster declaration for Memphis after last week’s ice storm, the Daily Memphian reports. Cohen, in a letter to Lee, wrote that an estimate from Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division shows $13 million in preliminary damage. That number is already more than the required minimum to qualify for federal disaster assistance. Cohen says several relief funds administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be of specific use, including the Public Assistance Grant Program for help with “debris removal, repair, replacement or restoration of disaster-damaged and publicly owned facilities.”

Items belonging to late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are set to be donated to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., next month, The Hill reports. In a release, the Smithsonian said a “significant selection of artifacts” representing Ginsburg’s career will be given to the National Museum of American History in a March 30 ceremony. The ceremony will serve as the “first public reveal” of exactly which items will join the institution’s collections. Ginsburg will also be posthumously awarded the museum’s Great Americans medal, which recognizes “lifetime contributions embodying American ideas and ideals” and those who “have not only made a lasting impact in their fields, but whose philanthropic and humanitarian endeavors set them apart.”