The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Council of the Section of Legal Education adopted a new policy statement that urges states to "create diverse pathways to licensure." That move deviates from more than a century of backing the use of bar exams for lawyer licensing, Reuters reports. The bar exam has come under fire in recent years for creating racial disparities in testing outcomes. The new policy statement also calls on states to create licensing structures that “mitigate the disparate exclusion from the profession of racial and ethnic minorities and individuals of low socioeconomic status.”

The Shelby County Commission is set to meet with county attorneys in a closed session today to seek legal advice before meeting to consider cuts to vacant positions in the county sheriff’s office, the Daily Memphian reports. Last week, Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said he would sue the commission if it cuts funding for 441 unfilled positions in his budget. Bonner argues that state law prevents the commission from cutting the positions.

A lawsuit filed by a Jewish couple alleging religious discrimination in Tennessee adoption law will now move forward after the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear the state's appeal, the Tennessean reports. Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram sued the state arguing they were unconstitutionally discriminated against after a state-funded Christian adoption agency refused to work with them. The case was initially dismissed but an appellate court overturned that ruling. The Supreme Court’s decision not to review the appellate ruling allows the suit to go forward.

The Nashville government is asking a judge to throw out the remainder of a law that cuts the size of its Metro council in half. Part of that law was invalidated last year by a three-judge panel, which decided the law was enacted too late to go into effect before the 2023 council elections. Attorneys for the city argue that the remaining part of the law cannot work without the blocked element. The state is arguing for the law to be upheld, saying a blanket limit on metro governments should proceed. Tennessee Report has more on the case.

ABA President Mary Smith is asking the ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence to study the prevalence and impact of bar admission questions that require survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking to disclose their involvement in legal and administrative proceedings. The ABA Journal reports that three U.S. senators raised the issue in a letter to Smith, saying that character and fitness questions on bar applications often require would-be lawyers to disclose whether they have been a party to legal or administrative proceedings. The letter also points out that in some states, broad wording may require survivors to disclose campus sexual misconduct complaints or protection orders related to a domestic violence or sexual assault.

Kingsport City Manager Chris McCartt and Deputy City Manager Ryan McReynolds have announced that the new $19 million Kingsport Justice Center expansion and renovation, funded by $13.4 million in city bonds and $5.6 million in Sullivan County bonds, should be complete and ready for use no later than May 2026. The Times News reports that the project will add more than 17,000 square feet to the late 1980s building and put county offices still in the old City Hall under the same roof as city offices, Kingsport City Police and various courtrooms. Of the facility's 17,600 square feet, about 9,000 is on the first floor with the remaining 8,600 on the second floor.

FBI agents recently raided two East Tennessee residences, including a Carson-Newman University dorm room, which investigators say were part of a scheme allowing foreign technology workers to work for U.S. companies under the stolen identities of American residents. According to the search warrant, a laptop farm is a "location hosting multiple computers all connecting to the internet through the same network, wherein individuals at the laptop farm assist remote individuals with logging on to the computers." This makes it appear like the remote individual is working at the laptop farm to avoid suspicion from their employer. Knox News has more on the story. Read the school's statement about the situation to WBIR.

Seventy years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the "separate but equal" doctrine unconstitutional in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, ending segregation in schools. Chalkbeat has several articles on the impacts of that decision in Tennessee.

Cleotha Abston has been sentenced to 80 years in prison for three charges related to the 2021 rape of Alicia Franklin. Shelby County Criminal Court Division 7 Judge Lee Coffee handed down three consecutive sentences: 40 years for aggravated rape, 20 years for aggravated kidnapping and 20 years for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He will not be eligible for parole on the rape or kidnapping charges, but has release eligibility after serving 85% of his firearm possession sentence. He cannot appeal his sentence because he agreed to it, though he can appeal his trial conviction. The Daily Memphian reports that Abston was not charged in the Franklin rape case until after he was charged in the September 2022 death of Memphis teacher Eliza Fletcher. Due to a testing backlog, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had not tested Franklin’s sexual-assault kit prior to Fletcher’s abduction and death.

St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital on Monday filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court, challenging the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission’s decision to grant approval for Vanderbilt Rutherford Hospital, a proposed 42-bed, acute care facility to be built near Murfreesboro. The Tennessee Lookout reports that the commission’s February decision marked a sharp reversal of an earlier decision by an administrative judge, who in 2023, denied Vanderbilt a so-called certificate of need, siding with three area hospitals who disputed a new hospital in the same market was necessary. TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center and Williamson Medical Center have contested plans for a new Vanderbilt facility but have not yet filed legal challenges.