Several bills regarding children and youth are scheduled to be considered by legislative committees next week. SB1868/HB2526 would allow the Department of Children’s Services to place some foster children who have threatened or exhibited violent behavior in jail-like facilities that usually are reserved for children who have committed crimes. WPLN has more on that bill. HB1165/SB0045 is being revived from last year and according to ABC24, aims to increase penalties for adults who recruit or coerce minors into committing crimes, a practice lawmakers and community leaders said is happening across the state. Another bill being revived from last year is HB0793/SB0836, which now would require public schools to report the number of undocumented students enrolled. The Tennessean covers developments in that bill, including what has changed from 2025. Last year, the bill would have given school districts the option of denying enrollment or charging families for immigrant children who could not prove legal status.

Bernard LaFayette, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, died March 5 at age 85. He came from Florida to Nashville in 1958 to study at American Baptist College, then the American Baptist Theological Seminary. LaFayette co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960 and under his leadership, Nashville became the first Southern city to desegregate public spaces. Lafayette and other civil rights icons staged their first sit-in at Harveys Department Store in downtown Nashville. The sit-in movement grew, and the first large-scale effort happened Feb. 13, 1960, at Woolworths, S.H. Kress and McLellan stores. He joined the Freedom Rides in 1961 and directed the Alabama Voter Registration Project, later becoming involved with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. LaFayette served as president of American Baptist College from 1992-1999. The Tennessean has more on his life.

The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments met in Knoxville to select nominees for the Court of Criminal Appeals Eastern Section vacancy following Justice Kyle Hixson’s elevation to the Tennessee Supreme Court. After holding a public hearing and conducting public interviews, the council selected the following nominees: Paul Othneil Moyle IV, assistant district attorney general for the 11th Judicial District (Hamilton County); Criminal Court Judge Stacy Lee Street, presiding over the 1st Judicial District, which includes Carter, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties; and Brennan Maureen Wingerter, director of the Appellate Division for the Tennessee District Public Defenders Conference. Read more about the nominees on the Administrative Office of the Court's website.

Kirkland & Ellis will open its Nashville office in The Pinnacle at Symphony Place, 150 3rd Ave. South, Ste. 1220, Nashville 37201. The world's largest law firm by revenue announced its move to Tennessee last month, and its website lists 16 attorneys associated with the new location. The Nashville Business Journal has more on the move.

The Tennessee Supreme Court temporarily suspended Shelby County lawyer Mary R. Rudolph from the practice of law on March 5 after finding she failed to respond to a complaint of misconduct. Rudolph is immediately precluded from accepting new cases and must cease representing existing clients by April 4. The suspension will remain in effect until dissolution or modification by the court.

A lawsuit filed in Florida alleges that former Tennessee Republican Rep. Mark Green and lobbyist Marc Hebert used confidential client information to form a competing business and pursue a fuel agreement with the Guyanese government — the same deal their clients, Curlew Mainstream and Playera Group, already were working to secure. The suit further claims that while Green was still a sitting congressman and chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, he and Hebert threatened to use their political connections to interfere with Curlew's pending agreement, and later communicated with the Guyanese government to raise "issues" that delayed it. Green, who retired from Congress in July 2024, has described his company Prosimos as a venture to help American companies compete internationally against Chinese firms. The Nashville Banner has the story.

Tennessee Court of Appeals Judges Andy Bennett, Frank Clement Jr. and Jeffrey Usman on Thursday heard arguments over whether Gov. Bill Lee's deployment of the National Guard to Memphis is constitutional. The case stems from a lawsuit filed by a group of Democratic city, county and state officials who claim the deployment violates the Tennessee Constitution. The plaintiffs argue the National Guard can be called up only in cases of rebellion or invasion, or at the request of local governing bodies or the legislature — none of which occurred. They also warn that without a defined end date, the military presence could continue indefinitely. The state countered that Memphis, which had the nation's highest per capita crime rate in 2024 at 345% above the national average, qualifies as a "grave emergency" justifying deployment, and that the decision falls within the governor's executive authority and is not subject to judicial override. The Commercial Appeal reports that the judges pressed both sides, appearing skeptical of the plaintiffs' narrow definition of the National Guard as a militia while also challenging the state to define what conditions would end the deployment.

Tennessee election finance officials have fined former Republican operative Cade Cothren $80,000 — the maximum allowed — for using a former Vanderbilt student as a figurehead treasurer to conceal his own role running the Faith Family Freedom PAC during the 2020 election cycle. The case stems from an October 2020 whistleblower complaint and was complicated by a separate federal prosecution in which Cothren and former House Speaker Glen Casada were convicted on money laundering and fraud charges before receiving pardons from President Donald Trump in November. The Nashville Scene reports that Cothren declined to respond to a subpoena or testify in his own defense during the ethics proceedings and says he is disputing the fine.

The Tony-winning musical "Suffs," currently touring in Nashville through Sunday at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC), dramatizes the pivotal summer of 1920 when Tennessee cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th Amendment and secure women's right to vote. Axios reports that the show highlights the Hermitage Hotel — less than a block away from TPAC — where suffrage and anti-suffrage activists camped out and pressured lawmakers in a frenzy of dealmaking so intense that the hotel lobby was dubbed the "third house" of the General Assembly. A key dramatic moment centers on Tennessee lawmaker Harry T. Burn, who broke a deadlock by switching his vote to yes after receiving a letter from his mother urging him to support the cause, making Tennessee the 36th and deciding state to ratify the amendment on Aug. 18, 1920.

The late Rev. James M. Lawson Jr. was a Memphis pastor who served as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s chief tactician and strategist during the pivotal 1968 sanitation workers strike, the events surrounding which ultimately led to King's assassination. Lawson, a lifelong advocate of nonviolent resistance, was remembered at a Feb. 20 book launch event at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis as a "tactical creator and spiritual leader" of the civil rights movement. The event marked the release of his memoir, "Nonviolent: A Memoir of Resistance, Agitation, and Love," co-written with Memphis author Emily Yellin, whose own family had deep roots in documenting the events of 1968. Lawson died in June 2024 at age 95, but his son described the memoir as an accurate reflection of his father's voice and legacy. The Commercial Appeal has more on the event.