The Tennessee House yesterday gave final approval to legislation to designate Juneteenth as a legal state holiday, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Juneteenth, already a federal holiday, commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued a proclamation declaring the freedom of Black slaves in Texas. Juneteenth is currently recognized as a Day of Special Observance in Tennessee. Legislation making it a legal state holiday passed the Senate last month. "I'm very appreciative of the legislature passing the bill. We expect the governor to sign it," said Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, a Black Chattanooga Democrat who supported the bill.

Three transgender children and their parents sued the state yesterday over a new law that bans gender-affirming care for minors, the Associated Press reports. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and other groups in federal court in Nashville. It claims the Tennessee law, which is scheduled to go into effect July 1, violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause because it allows the banned medical treatments when they are used to treat conditions other than gender dysphoria. The law prohibits health care providers from providing hormone treatments or surgeries for transgender youth where the purpose is to allow the child to express a gender identity “inconsistent with the immutable characteristics of the reproductive system that define the minor as male or female.”

While May 1 is officially recognized as Law Day, the American Bar Association (ABA) has announced a variety of events that will take place through early May to celebrate this year's Law Day theme “Cornerstones of Democracy: Civics, Civility and Collaboration.” See a full schedule of events on the ABA website.

Key members of the newly appointed 2023-2024 Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Board are meeting in Memphis this weekend for a spring retreat to make plans for next year's programs and projects. President-elect Quinton Thompson, who will take over as YLD president at the TBA Convention in June, welcomed the group to the downtown office of Morgan & Morgan this afternoon. He provided an overview of the upcoming bar year and introduced his new initiative "Diversity Law Week." Board members also heard a presentation on leading with purpose with attorneys Amber Floyd, Nicole Grida, Charlotte Knight Griffin and Terrence Reed and Memphis Councilman J.B. Smiley Jr. Committee members will continue to meet through tomorrow.

This year's Immigration Law Forum will cover timely topics affecting immigration attorneys. Sessions will include the discussion of the Southeastern Provision plant raid, family law immigration updates and the intersection of criminal and immigration law. Join us in person May 10 at 1212 Germantown in Nashville. Registration is from 8:30-9 a.m. with programming running from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. CDT.

The Tennessee Bar Association’s online renewal for 2023-2024 is now open! Renew your membership to continue your access to CLE programming with three pre-paid credits, TBA’s Practice Management Center, free online legal research through Fastcase, and timely information through TBA Today, TBA Podcasts and the Tennessee Bar Journal. Be sure to check out the new career center and watch this fall for TBA’s Group Health Insurance enrollment. Attorneys not participating in the TBA's firm billing program can login and access renewal information through their MyTBA dashboard.

Novel Bookstore in Memphis is hosting an event for former Tennessee Bar Journal editor Suzanne Craig Robertson's new book, "He Called Me Sister: A True Story of Finding Humanity on Death Row." The event will be on May 6 at 2 p.m. CDT and will be a conversation between Robertson and former TBA president Bill Haltom. No advance registration is required. The memoir recounts the Robertson family's 15-year friendship with Cecil Johnson, who was on Tennessee's death row and was executed in 2009. Drawing from Johnson's own memoir, news accounts and court documents, the book also features interviews with many lawyers involved in the case. Preorders are available from Novel and other online retailers. A similar event is scheduled in Knoxville on April 27.

ABC News 24 reports that Gov. Bill Lee made an emergency declaration to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Lewis, Macon, McNairy, Rutherford, Tipton and Wayne counties for debris removal and emergency protective measures related to the March 31 and April 1 tornado and severe weather response. If that request is granted, FEMA will also provide direct aid to eligible Tennessee residents in the requested counties for disaster-related costs and expenses. 

The Tennessee House of Representatives has expelled the first of three Democratic members who were at risk of being thrown out of the legislature for their role in a demonstration calling for gun control after the Nashville school shooting, the Associated Press reports. The vote Thursday to oust Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville was an extraordinary move the chamber has used only a handful times since the Civil War. The House was also to consider ousting Reps. Gloria Johnson, Knoxville, and Justin Pearson, Memphis. Votes on those expulsions were expected later today. The move comes a week after the trio chanted back and forth from the chamber floor with gun-control supporters who packed the gallery. House lawmakers voted 72-25 to remove Jones. 

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland says that the results of a federal investigation into the Memphis Police Department (MPD) will show whether Tyre Nichols’ death was part of broader cultural issues in the MPD, reports The Daily Memphian. During an appearance on the paper’s On the Record podcast, Strickland did not dismiss the idea that the department’s culture contributed to the lack of intervention observed before and after Nichols’ encounter with MPD. “It certainly brings up a question of whether there is a culture problem, whether this was just the officers who were there or is there a bigger problem in the police department,” Strickland said.