A new Mental Health Court is due to debut in Chattanooga in late July. The court will target defendants with serious mental illness and connect them to treatment services in the community while ensuring public safety. The court will operate in the General Sessions Court, Criminal Division and Criminal Court of Hamilton County. The Chattanoogan has more.

Nearly half of the Republican members of the state House of Representatives met yesterday to begin discussing a possible legislative response to last week’s Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage across the nation. The group reached no consensus, but the discussion ranged broadly — from a special legislative session to try to ensure that clergy, public officials who perform marriages and wedding vendors are “protected” from discrimination lawsuits — to the possibility of Tennessee joining a multistate effort to try to reverse the ruling via a federal constitutional amendment. The Commercial Appeal has the story.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a health care liability lawsuit against an East Tennessee doctor and hospital, concluding that delivery of pre-suit notice of a health care liability action via FedEx is a proper method of service under Tennessee law. In a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Sharon G. Lee, the Supreme Court held that the delivery of pre-suit notice to health care defendants may be achieved by substantially complying with the statute and that use of FedEx as the carrier of the notice letters constitutes substantial compliance. The AOC has more.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed multiple convictions stemming from a domestic incident in which Terrence Feaster inflicted serious injuries upon his then-girlfriend, Molly Kate McWhirter, at her Knox County residence. On appeal, Feaster argued that his dual convictions for attempted voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault arising out of the same incident constituted double jeopardy, or being sentenced twice for substantially the same offense. The Supreme Court rejected Feaster’s claim, concluding that the dual convictions could stand because the offenses are composed of different elements. The AOC has more.

The California House passed a proposal that would outlaw a family's personal and religious beliefs as reasons to exempt their children from school vaccinations, CNN reports. Under the proposal, if a parent chooses to not vaccinate their child, the parent would have to home-school their child or use public school independent study that's administered by local education agencies. 

A memorial service for longtime Legal Aid attorney Jean Crowe will be held Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in West End United Methodist Church, 2200 West End Ave. Considered by many to be the Mother of the Domestic Violence Movement in Nashville, Crowe died Monday (June 22) from a brain tumor. In lieu of flowers, make donations to Legal Aid of Middle Tennessee, 300 Deaderick St., Nashville.

Lawyers land second only to CEOs on a list of the top 10 careers with the most psychopaths, according to Oxford psychologist Kevin Dutton. Contrary to popular notions, lots of psychopaths aren’t raging lunatics or violent criminals, and research suggests psychopathy can actually be advantageous in certain professions. Salon has more.

Assistant district attorney Jeffrey Blake was arrested on a domestic violence-vandalism charge in Memphis while visiting family last week, Fox 17 reports. Police say Jackson argued with his mother through a window of her home then smashed the window. Blake, who was appointed in August 2014 by newly elected Nashville DA Glenn Funk, is on leave while the incident is investigated.

The Supreme Court today ruled that claims of racial discrimination in housing cases shouldn't be limited by questions of intent, National Public Radio reports. The court affirmed a Court of Appeals decision in a case in which a nonprofit group, the Inclusive Communities Project, said that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs had contributed to "segregated housing patterns by allocating too many tax credits to housing in predominantly black inner-city areas and too few in predominantly white suburban neighborhoods." The 5-4 ruling endorses the notion of citing disparate impact in housing cases, meaning that statistics and other evidence can be used to show decisions and practices have discriminatory effects — without proving that they're the result of discriminatory intentions.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of a $600,000 fraud verdict against the self-proclaimed “Queen of Versailles” Jacqueline Siegel and her husband Westgate Resorts king David Siegel. The court issued an order Tuesday denying the Siegels an appeal of Sevier County Chancellor Telford Forgety Jr.’s decision to award $700,000 for “willfully” making false promises to a Dickson couple. Jamie Satterfield’s Lady Justice Unmasked blog has more.