The Tennessee Hospitality Association is seeking to amend a hotel tax law and require online travel companies to pay more in taxes, a measure that would add more than $1 million to annual tax revenue. The trade group argues that online travel companies have a competitive advantage because they pay taxes in a discounted room rate rather than the retail rate. It believes that changing the language of the state law will level the playing field. The Nashville Business Journal has the story.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved legislation that would require police to obtain a search warrant from a judge before allowing a person’s email or other electronic communication to be reviewed. The bill makes it slightly more difficult for the government to access the content of a consumer’s emails and private files from Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and other sources. Under the current law, the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Ac, a warrant is needed only for emails less than 6 months old.

The Tennessee Supreme Court will not hear an appeal filed on behalf of Washington County Clerk and Master Brenda W. Sneyd after her lawsuit against the county was dismissed, by the State Court of Appeals, the Johnson City Press reports. Sneyed originally  filed suit in Sept. 2010 in Washington County Chancery Court to request back pay for not receiving the same 10 percent pay raise as her counterpart. 

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) will stop voting “No” on all judicial nominees, a spokesman said, ending a protest  that started in January when President Barack Obama made four controversial recess appointments, the National Law Journal reports. Although Lee was vocal in his opposition to the recess appointments, which he says were unprecedented and happened when the Senate was in session, he now states that the Republicans have adequately responded by invoking a loosely defined Senate tradition of backing off from filling circuit court seats in the waning months of a presidents term.

Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland filed a memorandum of complaint with the Board of Professional Responsibility against a Baker Donelson attorney who he said lied about drafting a letter for another commissioner and that redacted entries in a billings state covers that up. The firm was hired by the commission to handle its lawsuit to block the creation of suburban municipal school districts. Representatives from the Board of Professional responsibility would not comment on a specific complaint, The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

U.S District Judge Todd Campbell dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of Catholic nonprofit organizations in Nashville that challenged a provision of the new federal health care law providing contraceptive coverage to employees. Since the mandate is not currently being enforced, the judge ruled that the nonprofits have suffered no injury. The contraceptive provision is being revised to accommodate nonprofits with religious objections. The Knox News Sentinel has the story.

The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the three-year sentence for Christine Caudle by applying the abuse of discretion standard of review recently adopted in State of Tennessee v. Susan Renee Bise. The Court of Criminal Appeals declined to conduct of review of Caudle’s sentences because she failed to include in the record a transcript of the hearing on the guilty plea. Upon further appeal, the Court ruled the trial court did not abuse its discretionary authority since it found the record was sufficient without the transcripts for meaningful review. Read the opinion.

Rosemarie Hill of Chattanooga-based law firm Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C., was recently inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), the Hamilton Count Herald reports. The ACTL was established in 1950 and is dedicated to maintaining and improving the standards of trial practice, the administration of justice, and the ethics of the profession. Hill is head of Chambliss’ labor and employment group.

The two men who sued the Hamilton County Commission for allowing prayer before public meetings have filed an appeal after a judge dismissed their request for a preliminary injunction. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports U.S. District Court Judge Harry S. “Sandy” Mattice ruled that not enough time had passed since the commission’s enactment of a new prayer policy, which was intended to show that the meeting invocations were inclusive of other faith traditions. The plaintiffs called the new policy a “sham.”

After being fined $3.4 million dollars by the state for denying the Great Hearts Charter School application, Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced it is one of 61 finalists seeking a portion of $400 million in district-focused Race to the Top fund, the City Paper reports. MNPS is the only district in Tennessee to land in the final round. Federal education officials are expected to narrow down the remaining applicants to 15-25 by the end of the year.

In related news, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, who is a staunch supporter of publicly financed, privately led charter schools, announced that he does not currently support the controversial school voucher-program, the Tennessean reports. The Metro Nashville Board of Education, along with school boards in Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Memphis, each passed resolutions opposing the voucher proposal.