The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld that state and local governments can continue their longstanding method of drawing state and municipal election districts, USA Today reports. The unanimous decision denied an effort by conservatives in a Texas case that argued only eligible voters should be counted rather than drawing districts with roughly equal numbers of residents. "Adopting voter-eligible apportionment as constitutional command would upset a well-functioning approach to districting that all 50 states and countless local jurisdictions have followed for decades, even centuries," Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote.

The Defendant, Thomas Neal McClean, was convicted upon his guilty pleas to robbery, a Class C felony; burglary, a Class E felony; and theft of property valued at $500 or less, a Class A misdemeanor. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-401 (2014) (robbery), 39-14-402 (2014) (burglary), 39-14-103 (2014) (theft), 39-14-105(a)(1) (2014) (grading of theft). He received an effective ten-year sentence as a Range III, persistent offender. In this appeal, he contends he received the ineffective assistance of counsel.

In 2000, the Petitioner, Charles R. Blackstock, pleaded guilty to one count of especially aggravated kidnapping and two counts of rape of a child, and the trial court sentenced him to three consecutive twenty-five year sentences. This Court affirmed the consecutive sentencing on appeal, but modified the total effective sentence to seventy-one years. State v. Charles R. Blackstock, No. E2000-01546-R3-CD, 2001 WL 969036, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Knoxville, Aug. 27, 2001), no Tenn. R. App. P. 11 application filed.

The Defendant, Grady Joe Careathers, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in exchange for a probation sentence. Shortly thereafter, the Defendant was arrested for violating the Habitual Motor Vehicle Offender Act, a charge to which he pleaded guilty. At the same time, he entered a guilty plea to violating his probation. Over the next five years, the Defendant admitted to violating his probation sentence on several occasions. At his fifth revocation hearing, the trial court revoked his probation and ordered him to serve the remainder of his sentence in confinement.

The Defendant, Mitchell Lee Davis, pleaded guilty to burglary, misdemeanor theft, and sale of a Schedule II controlled substance, and the trial court entered the agreed sentence of five years, 180 days of which were to be served in confinement and the remainder to be served on probation. The Defendant?s probation officer subsequently filed an affidavit alleging a probation violation. The trial court issued a warrant, and the parties agreed that the Defendant should serve 120 more days followed by reinstatement to probation.

In 1998, a jury convicted the Defendant, Billy Locke, for DUI, third offense. The trial court sentenced the Defendant to serve eleven months and twenty-nine days, 160 days of which was to be served in confinement with the remainder to be served on probation. In 1999, the Defendant pleaded guilty to burglary, evading arrest, assault, and possession of burglary tools, and the trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of three years to run consecutively with any sentence he received for violating his probation for the DUI conviction.

“They all had a gentleman’s agreement — you don’t go after my guys, I won’t go after your guy.” That's how it used to be in Nashville's banking community, but that's not how it is anymore, the Tennessean reports in its coverage of the ongoing legal battle between the two largest Tennessee-based banks, Pinnacle Financial Partners and First Tennessee Bank. The battle is over Pinnacle’s recruitment of eight First Tennessee employees in 2015. Pinnacle denies allegations that a former First Tennessee employee recruited coworkers to work for Pinnacle before moving there himself.