U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel ruled this week that the Trump administration erred when it paused the distribution of millions of dollars in grants — including $14 million awarded to Metro Nashville for transit projects — and must distribute the funds immediately. Gergel gave the administration seven days to comply. Nashville had joined with a group of five major cities and nearly a dozen nonprofits to sue over the cuts in March. The funding will be used to upgrade and expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure and help fund a transit connection project, including protected bike lanes and pedestrian improvements. The Tennessean has more on the decision.

The April 28 fire that destroyed the Clayborn Temple was set intentionally, the Memphis Fire Department said this week. Officials are looking for a person of interest in the case, the Daily Memphian reports. The church had served as a base of operations for the 1968 strike of 1,300 city sanitation workers and then, once the protest grew, it became the starting point for daily marches to City Hall. Each year, supporters had gathered at the church on April 4 to mark the anniversary of the strike and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., who had come to Memphis to lend his support to the cause. A nonprofit group, Historic Clayborn Temple, has committed to restoring the church. In a separate article, the paper reports that the Memphis home of the temple’s director caught fire about two weeks before church fire.

The Shelby County government is directing the City of Memphis to move 11 of its offices out of the county criminal justice center by Dec. 31, 2026, The Commercial Appeal reports. The county says increasing operational demands and the need for more space for law enforcement and judicial functions is driving the decision. Offices impacted include city court judges, court clerks, court coordinators, city prosecutors, bailiff holding and city police dispatch. One city office, the Memphis Police Department's property and evidence room, will remain at 201 Poplar.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee has changed its local rules to clarify that attorneys may speak on social media and to news media about their cases without fear, The Tennessean reports. In a filing signed by all four judges, the local rules were revised on May 15 to address concerns over a “gag order” that was placed on attorney Daniel Horwitz during litigation against private prison company CoreCivic. Now, the rule simply states that attorneys are bound by Tennessee’s rules of professional conduct. Institute for Justice attorney Jared McClain, who represented Horwitz in challenging the rule, said, “This is a huge win for the First Amendment in Middle Tennessee. Attorneys have a right to discuss their cases, and the public has a right to know what the government and its contractors are doing wrong.” Horwitz had challenged the order and while his appeal is still pending, the court's action resolves the matter according to the paper.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed the "Take It Down Act," bipartisan legislation that enacts stricter penalties for the distribution of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes created by artificial intelligence, according to the Associated Press. The measure, which takes effect immediately, makes it illegal to “knowingly publish” or threaten to publish intimate images without a person’s consent, and requires websites and social media platforms to remove such material within 48 hours of receiving notice from a victim. Free speech advocates and digital rights groups argue the bill is too broad and could result in the censorship of legitimate content, including legal pornography.

Tennessee is scheduled to execute Oscar Franklin Smith tomorrow morning as a lawsuit challenging the state’s new lethal injection protocol moves through the court system. According to WPLN, anti-death penalty advocates and Smith’s attorneys spent weeks asking Gov. Bill Lee to halt executions until the court rules on whether the protocol is constitutional. A decision on that could take until at least 2026 the news outlet reports. Smith’s attorneys announced Tuesday that Lee had denied a request for a reprieve. Smith, who was convicted of murdering his wife Judith Smith and her two sons in 1989, will be the first person in Tennessee to be executed using a single lethal dose of pentobarbital. Attorneys for nine death row inmates are challenging that method in Davidson County Chancery Court.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is closing its investigation into the Memphis Police Department (MPD), the Commercial Appeal reports. The DOJ opened the probe months after Tyre Nichols was beaten by police and later died. Its investigation found multiple patterns or practices of civil rights violations by the department. The city of Memphis declined to enter a consent decree ahead of the report’s release in December 2024, and no lawsuit was filed to force the issue. Though Memphis never entered into a consent decree, the DOJ said it was “retracting the Biden administration’s findings of constitutional violations.” Following news of the action, Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the DOJ decision will not impact the city's efforts to reform policing. Also according to the paper, the DOJ announced it would seek to dismiss civil rights lawsuits in Kentucky and Minnesota, which had resulted in consent decrees.

A new lawsuit brought on behalf of 13 children alleges that foster kids in Tennessee are being denied basic rights to education, health care and stable homes, and have been kept in unsafe institutions or moved through multiple foster families for years at a time, Tennessee Lookout reports. The lawsuit alleges that the Department of Children’s Services has violated children’s constitutional rights and federal law. Led by a national team of child welfare attorneys, the suit is seeking court approval for class-action status to represent all 9,000 children in the state’s foster care system. Firms involved include Bass, Berry & Sims, A Better Childhood, the Barbara McDowell Social Justice Center, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and Wang Hecker. This is the second class-action lawsuit filed in the last year alleging mistreatment.

Vanderbilt University Law School Dean Chris Guthrie recently announced that Michelle Parsons has been named the school's next assistant dean for career services. Parsons will assume the role from Elizabeth Workman, who is retiring this summer. Parsons has most recently served as director of outreach in the Office of Career Services. “I am eager to work alongside our talented students, faculty, staff and alumni to strengthen our ties with employers nationwide and ensure our graduates continue to thrive,” Parsons said of her new role. Trained as a lawyer, Parsons served in legal recruiting positions at Holland & Knight, Clear Diligence and Waller. She also worked on the admissions team at Belmont University’s College of Law earlier in her career. Read more in a press release from the law school.

Out of the 20 law firms that received letters in March from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requesting information about their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) related employment practices, six have resolved those probes with pro bono deals, the ABA Journal reports. According to the publication, the firms agreed to provide pro bono services to causes jointly supported by the firms and the administration, after which the EEOC's letters were withdrawn. Earlier this month, three law students filed a federal lawsuit to compel the EEOC to withdraw the letters, citing data privacy concerns.