The Administrative Office of the Courts recently released updated membership lists for its various board and commissions, including the Tennessee Code Commission, Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission, Board of Professional Responsibility and Integrated Criminal Justice Steering Committee.

The Tennessee Bar Association will be closed Thursday, Dec. 25, and Friday, Dec. 26, in observance of the Christmas holiday. The office will reopen Monday, Dec. 29, at 8 a.m. Central time.

Lt. Todd Royval asked to be removed from his leadership role as head of the police department's crime suppression unit and point man for Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke’s Violence Reduction Initiative within the police department. Royval — who has 20 years of police experience — was among a group of leaders sent to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice last year to train on how to implement the city's violence reduction initiative, modeled after a program in High Point, North Carolina. Chattanooga Police Department Chief Fred Fletcher confirmed that Royval made the request to be reassigned, citing personal reasons that the chief could not talk about. The Times Free Press has more.

While the Obama administration has consistently supported measures aimed at reforming mandatory minimum prison sentencing for nonviolent drug offenders, President Barack Obama's recent decision to commute the prison sentences of only eight federal inmates has left advocates wanting more. Eight offenders were granted commutations in 2013 as well. Many advocates expected the number to be much greater this year given the Justice Department's April announcement of a new prison reform initiative aimed at making it easier for the administration to pardon or reduce sentences of non-violent offenders. WCYB has the story from CNN.

A proposed Tennessee abortion regulation is similar to a North Carolina law deemed unconstitutional by a federal appeals court this week, the Tennessean reports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in part Monday that North Carolina could not require a doctor to describe the images of an ultrasound because it would violate First Amendment rights to free speech, according to the 37-page opinion. Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, who introduced Tennessee’s ultrasound bill, said yesterday the opinion in no way changes his desire to see his bill become law in Tennessee. He also noted the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled a similar proposal in Texas was constitutional, arguing a final decision could be needed from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Tennessee General Assembly last week launched a redesigned website that features upgrades to bill tracking and video streaming functions. The updated site also has a new theme and layout that is meant to make it easier to find information about lawmakers and legislation and to display and stream video to all major mobile devices. Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey says the redesign is meant to make state government "more open, more transparent and customer-friendly." The Nashville Ledger has more.

Hello Class, 

The electronic version of your 2015 TBALL Class Binder is now available. Hard copy binders were mailed to each of you. Please bring your binder to the Opening Retreat and subsequent monthly sessions. I look forward to seeing you all in just a few short weeks!

Thanks, 

Brittany Sims
Leadership Law Coordinator
(615) 383-7421
bsims@tnbar.org

Attorneys for the state asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to keep the identities of those who carry out executions secret during oral arguments yesterday. The arguments come just as two lower courts have found that the names should be released to the attorneys who filed a lawsuit against the state. The disagreement is over whether the public defenders’ office should be able to interview pharmacists, medical examiners and other members of the state’s execution team as part of a suit challenging the death penalty. Nashville Public Radio has more.

The U.S. Senate confirmed a total of 132 district and circuit judges after a whirlwind series of late and even midnight sessions, Time reports. That is the most by any Congress in 35 years and helps secure a major part of President Barack Obama’s judicial legacy. The 305 Obama-nominated judges are also the most diverse group ever. “What Obama has done within terms of his judicial legacy is what no other president has ever done before and it’s doubtful that any future president is going to match it,” says Sheldon Goldman, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “Obama has diversified the bench in terms of gender, ethnicity, nationality to an extent never, ever, ever done before.”

In a unanimous opinion, the Tennessee Supreme Court has decided that hospitals are required to release their hospital lien against a patient as soon as the patient and the patient’s insurance company have paid the full amount of the hospital charges. In West v.Shelby County Healthcare Corp., three patients who received treatment at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis’ (Med) emergency room filed suit in the Circuit Court for Shelby County challenging the Med’s practice of filing liens against its patients and declining to release these liens after they had been paid. The trial court dismissed the lawsuit, but the Court of Appeals reversed. The Tennessee Supreme Court granted the Med’s appeal, ruling that neither the laws authorizing hospital liens nor the Med’s contract with health insurance companies permitted the Med to maintain its lien after the patient’s debt to the Med has been fully extinguished with payments from the patient and the patient’s insurance company. The AOC has more.