With the opening of the new Chattanooga Family Justice Center later this year, the role of the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults is no longer clear, WDEF reports. Established 137 years ago, the Partnership is a non-profit group that deals with family violence, elder abuse and human trafficking. It already offers most of the same crisis one-stop services at its downtown location that the new Family Justice Center will offer. The city's goal with the new facility is to also offer those in crisis one-stop service, but the question arises: what role will Partnership will play?

The Republican-led House of Representatives yesterday passed legislation to roll back the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, a measure that the Obama administration already vowed to veto. The vote was 239-186, with no House Democrat supporting the measure and three House GOP freshmen opposing it. This latest vote marked the 67th time the House has voted to entirely repeal, defund or change some provisions of President Barack Obama's signature health care law. WCYB reports from CNN.

George Edward S. Pettigrew received a public censure yesterday (Jan. 29) for falsely reporting to the Baord of Professional Responsibility and falsely testifying before the court that he had not loaned his automobile to his client while her cases were pending. View the BPR notice. 

Michelle Consiglio-Young has been named legislative liaison and assistant general counsel for the Administrative Office of the Courts. In this role, she will be drafting and tracking legislation for the judiciary, following other proposed legislation, assisting members of the General Assembly with information about Tennessee courts, informing members of the judiciary about legislative initiatives and proposed legislation, preparing fiscal notes and attending legislative committee meetings on behalf of the judiciary. Consiglio-Young most recently worked in the criminal justice division of the Tennessee Attorney General’s office and prior to that, she clerked for Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Robert W. Wedemeyer.

Maureen Holland, a civil rights attorney from Memphis and one of the lawyers currently preparing briefs for the upcoming Supreme Court argument on same-sex marriage rights, says this could be the case to make marriage for same-sex couples a federal guarantee. Lawyers from Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan have been asked to address whether the 14th Amendment requires states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize marriages from other states. While the Tennessee attorneys will address both questions posed by the court in a brief that will be filed at the end of February, Holland said the Tennessee cases focus exclusively on marriage recognition and interstate travel and their brief will reflect that. The UT Daily Beacon has more.

Burr & Forman announced yesterday the addition of three more attorneys from Stites & Harbison, bringing the total number of people who have switched from the latter to the former to 13. The new additions are partners Jerry Taylor and Greg Young and associate Matthew Kroplin. Burr & Forman has more than doubled its Nashville office in less than one month, bringing its total roster in Music City to 23. Stites, meanwhile, is down to 31 attorneys from a high of more than 50. The Nashville Post has the story.

During remarks at the Chattanooga Bar Association’s 117th Annual Meeting last week, newly installed president Paul Hatcher called on members to help swell its ranks from fewer than 65 percent of the city’s attorneys to something closer to the 85 percent it once served. “As great a job as we’re doing, and as great an organization as this is, we still have a drop in membership we need to repair,” Hatcher said. The Hamilton County Herald has more.

The Obama administration has ordered immigration agents to ask immigrants they encounter living in the country illegally whether they might qualify under President Barack Obama’s plans to avoid deporting them, according to internal training materials obtained by The Associated Press. The directives from the Homeland Security Department mark an unusual change for U.S. immigration enforcement, placing the obligation on the government for identifying immigrants who might qualify for lenient treatment. Previously, it was the responsibility of immigrants or their lawyers to assert that they might qualify under rules that could keep them out of jail and inside the United States. WREG has more.

Medical costs for inmates in the Coffee County Jail continue to spiral out of control as county officials wait for approval to move into new facilities. Overcrowding in the existing jail has been blamed for causing much of the medical cost overrun, the Manchester Times reports. Accounts and Budgets Director Marianna Edinger said the $513,000 budgeted for jail medical costs for the 2014-2015 fiscal year that started July 1 was reached only six months into the fiscal year.

Almost a month into the 114th Senate and the new Republican majority still doesn’t know what to do about filibusters of judicial nominations, according to Bloomberg News columnist Jonathan Bernstein. In an opinion piece republished in the Columbia Daily Herald, Berstein explains his idea of a compromise that would prevent blockades of nominations by the minority party, but would also give some check against easy confirmations.