The parents of three Knox County Schools students — all of whom have a disability or chronic illness — have filed a lawsuit against Gov. Bill Lee and Knox County claiming their children are “unable to safely attend school without increased risks of serious injury or even death.” The suit, which is seeking class action status, alleges that Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt out of school mask mandates and Knox County’s lack of a school mask mandate violate the federal Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, WATE reports. The parents are asking for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction of Executive Order No. 84 so that Knox County schools can enforce mask mandates. It is the second suit filed by families concerned about their children’s safety. A similar suit was filed a few days ago in Shelby County.

The state’s one-time top vaccination official has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Tennessee Department of Health leadership of making “stigmatizing and defamatory statements” against her. Dr. Michelle Fiscus filed the lawsuit yesterday naming Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey and Chief Medical Officer Tim Jones as defendants in the case, WBIR reports. Fiscus was fired on July 12 after serving as medical director of the health department’s Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and Immunization Program. She specifically cites comments made in a letter released to the media explaining the reasons for her termination.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. judicial system faced unprecedented challenges, quickly adapting to new health and safety requirements and navigating court closures while ensuring that litigants still had access to the courts. To explore the impact of these challenges, Thomson Reuters surveyed nearly 240 court professionals — judges and chief justices, magistrates, court administrators, attorneys and clerks — at the state, county and municipal levels. A new report “The Impacts of the Pandemic on State & Local Courts” distills those responses, offering insight into how well courts pivoted to remote hearings, how remote hearings impacted access to justice, how case backlogs were impacted, which technology solutions are most needed, and what hearings might look like going forward.

The criminal and general sessions courts in Knox County issued an order yesterday requiring face coverings to be worn at all times in the courtrooms and the back hallway behind the courts. The order allows individual judges to suspend the requirement on a case-by-case basis. The requirement will remain in effect until Sept. 30 unless modified by a subsequent order.

Federal education officials have launched a civil rights investigation into Gov. Bill Lee’s recent executive order prohibiting school districts from mandating mask-wearing, saying such policies could amount to illegal discrimination against students with disabilities. Investigations were also opened into similar orders in Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah, Tennessee Lookout reports. The investigations will examine whether “students with disabilities, who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19, are prevented from safely returning to in-person education” as a result of the policies. The Department of Education had previously warned that the order could run afoul of federal law. The governor is also being sued by Shelby County and a group of families.

The U.S. Justice Department this week urged attorneys across the legal profession to volunteer their time to assist the surge of tenants expected to be forced out of homes now that a COVID-19 pandemic-related eviction moratorium has ended. In a letter addressed to "members of the legal community," Attorney General Merrick Garland said eviction filings are expected to spike to roughly double their pre-pandemic levels and that lawyers have an ethical obligation to help the most vulnerable. Garland encouraged lawyers to volunteer at legal aid providers or help tenants apply for government emergency rent relief, Reuters reports. A number of law school deans, including Chris Guthrie at Vanderbilt University Law School, signed onto a statement supporting the call.

U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman yesterday denied a motion from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to end the consent decree between the county jail and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) regarding COVID-19 prevention. The Sheriff’s Office asked Lipman last month to terminate the agreement, claiming it had satisfied the terms of the decree. According to the Memphis Flyer, Lipman rejected that claim, finding that all detainees had not been offered the COVID-19 vaccine, nor had they all been given the educational materials and incentives to take the vaccine. “The consent decree did not enshrine mere box-checking. It enshrined meaningful protection for plaintiffs, a medically vulnerable group,” Lipman said.  

A federal judge this week heard arguments in a lawsuit seeking to block Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order that allows parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates, the Commercial Appeal reports. The plaintiffs, two Shelby County families with immunocompromised children, told U.S. District Judge Sheryl Halle Lipman that Lee’s order creates an “unreasonably dangerous environment” for medically vulnerable children and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Jim Newsom with the attorney general’s office argued the parents had not yet exhausted the appeal process available for families of children with disabilities. He added the proper route would be to file a complaint with school and district officials and then with the State Department of Education. The state did not call any witnesses. The plaintiffs, represented by Donati Law, brought in two medical experts who spoke of the “higher burden” an unmasked child puts on other kids in the classroom. 

A woman being held at Silverdale Jail, a facility owned by Hamilton County and run through a private third party, gave birth to a child at a local hospital shortly before passing away from apparent COVID-19 complications, the Chattanoogan reports. The Chattanooga Police Department says Morghan Jean Elmore was arrested on Aug. 13 and transported to a local hospital on Aug. 21. Her passing is considered an in-custody death and the Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office has requested the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division conduct an investigation.

Two Shelby County families have filed a lawsuit stating the executive order allowing parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates violates the American with Disabilities Act, NewsChannel 11 reports. Filed Friday, the lawsuit names Gov. Bill Lee and Shelby County as defendants and two Shelby County students, represented by their parents, as the plaintiffs. Earlier last week Shelby County filed suit against the governor, calling for Executive Order No. 84 to be revoked under 14th Amendment protections. It argues that children who are not eligible for the vaccine have no protection against exposure to students infected with COVID-19, “potentially causing them to suffer fear, uncertainty and possibly even death.”