Chancellor Louis Oliver III has ruled that a lawsuit filed by the Sumner County Election Commission against the county’s mayor and the county commission will be allowed to continue. The Tennessee Lookout reports that the lawsuit was filed in May after members of the Sumner County Commission sought to evict election officials from their offices and warehouse space used to store voting machines — potentially leaving machines unsecured and out of easy reach of election officials who need ready access to them.

Sumner County has officially eliminated its Human Resources Department. According to the Tennessee Lookout, this week’s 19-4 decision is part of an ongoing approach to “streamline government and decrease bureaucratic function,” Commissioner Jeremy Mansfield said in advance of the vote. Commissioner Baker Ring was among those opposed to the measure, noting that the county is currently facing multiple lawsuits over policy actions taken by the county commission since a turnover in membership ushered in a majority of members who campaigned on limiting government in the last election.

The Jabari Bailey Highway Safety Act, named after a Memphis teen who was injured while pulled over along the highway, will add more requirements to Tennessee’s “Move Over Law” when it goes into effect Saturday. WATE in Knoxville reports that the act, sponsored by Knoxville Republican Sen. Becky Duncan Massey, requires motorists to change lanes and move away from any vehicle that is stationary on the side of the road with its hazard lights on. The previous “Move Over Law” only applied to emergency vehicles pulled over on the side of the road; this amendment is also intended keep road work crews safer.

For the ninth year in a row, the Tennessee Supreme Court is recognizing Attorneys for Justice, honoring all attorneys who provide at least 50 hours of service annually. The recognition program was created to encourage more attorneys and law offices to provide pro bono services to those who cannot afford legal costs, with a goal of increasing statewide pro bono participation to 50%. See the list of current Attorneys for Justice on the Supreme Court’s website.

The Supreme Court today overturned decades of affirmative action programs used in the admissions process by colleges and universities across the U.S. The Hill reports that the majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, invalidated admissions practices used by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, finding that they did not comply with the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. Roberts wrote, “Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping and lack meaningful end points.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned the dissenting opinion, stating that the ruling’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment is “grounded in the illusion that racial inequality was a problem of a different generation. ... Ignoring race will not equalize a society that is racially unequal.”

A federal judge issued a temporary partial injunction a Tennessee’s law banning certain gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The law, which was set to take effect July 1, would have banned transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy, reports WPLN. Judge Eli Richardson wrote that limiting gender-affirming care for transgender children, but not for cisgender or intersex children, “imposes disparate treatment on the basis of sex.” The state argued that gender-affirming treatment does not improve mental health, but the judge’s ruling refutes this argument. The Daily Memphian reports that Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed an emergency motion asking the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee to reverse the preliminary injunction and notified the court that it would appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

The Tennessee Bureau of Workers' Compensation announced Katherine "Kitty" Boyte as the fifth recipient of its Sue Ann Head Award for Excellence in Workers' Compensation. The award was presented to Boyte at a luncheon ceremony during the group's educational conference on June 15 in Murfreesboro. The award honors a professional who has or is currently making a lasting, positive impact on Tennessee’s workers’ compensation system.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin announced that the committee will mark up ethics legislation for the U.S. Supreme Court in July. The ABA Journal reports that Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, tweeted Wednesday that the Supreme Court “is in an ethical crisis of its own making.” Currently, federal trial-level and appellate judges — but not Supreme Court justices — are bound by the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. In February, the ABA House of Delegates called on the Supreme Court to adopt a binding code of ethics for its justices that is similar to the code for other federal judges.

Tennessee’s Community Corrections program for felony offenders is set to be renewed when a new law takes effect July 1. According to the Tennessee Lookout, the Department of Correction is believed to be assessing the program to determine its next step. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, and Sen. Ed Jackson, R-Jackson, placed “community-based supervision” back into state law and will allow Community Corrections to provide intensive probation, treatment and supervision for convicted felons who, otherwise, could be headed to prison.

Preliminary results in the House District 3 special election show that Timothy Hill of Blountville won the Republican primary election with 81% of the votes, according to unofficial results from the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office. Hill is filling the seat recently vacated by Scotty Campbell, R-Mountain City, who resigned after an internal investigation by a state subcommittee in late March found that he violated a discrimination and harassment policy. Hill will face Democrat Lori Love of Kingsport in the general election on Aug. 3.