Members of the Democratic Women's Caucus have introduced legislation to create a monument in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the U.S. Capitol or on capitol grounds, WSMV reports. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, has introduced a companion bill in the Senate. Ginsburg died in September 2020 at age 87 after serving for 27 years on the high court.

A resolution to add Tennessee’s Right to Work law to the state constitution was given final approval from the Senate on Monday night, Chattanoogan.com reports. Senate Joint Resolution 2, sponsored by Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, received more than the two-thirds vote required to pass. Now the measure goes to the House. Today, the House Banking and Consumer Affairs Committee was scheduled to discuss House Joint Resolution 72 sponsored by Rep. Chris Todd, R-Jackson. If approved by the House, the amendment would be put to voters in 2022. Tennessee’s Right to Work statute has been state law since 1947. 

Baker Donelson has received the ABA’s Free Legal Answers 2020 Pro Bono Leader Award in recognition of contributions made by firm attorneys to the virtual legal advice clinic “Free Legal Answers.” The award is presented each year by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. Baker Donelson lawyers helped develop “Tennessee Free Legal Answers” — a free online service for low-income clients — a decade ago. The project has since expanded to 42 states under the direction of the ABA. More than 145,000 pro bono legal questions have been answered through the program. In 2020, Baker Donelson attorneys answered more legal questions than any other law firm or legal group, responding to 1,155 questions from Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee.

A new, cutting-edge court program in Tennessee is changing the way the judiciary interacts with at-risk children and their families, the Administrative Office of the Courts said this week. The Family Preservation Initiative, a pilot project supervised by Rutherford County Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport and funded by the National Center for State Courts, seeks to identify and aid youths and their families before or just after an initial petition is filed in a child welfare matter, with the goal of preventing family separations and providing critical “wrap around” support and services. Magistrate Stacy Lynch will preside over the Family Preservation Court, while Sheila Barrera will serve as project coordinator. Once the project is fully operational, they will take referrals from various agencies and organizations, including schools, local police, the Department of Children’s Services, community mental health agencies and juvenile court.

Federal law enforcement officials continue to arrest people in Tennessee in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, WPLN reports. The latest is Ronnie B. Presley of Bethpage. The FBI arrested him in Old Hickory Friday. He was expected in court Monday. Other Tennesseans arrested include Bryan Wayne Ivey of Crossville; Jack Jesse Griffith and Eric Chase Torrens of Gallatin; Matthew Bledsoe of Memphis; and Eric Munchel and Blake Austin Reed of Nashville. In related news, officials arrested Federico Klein last week. He is believed to be the first Trump political appointee suspected of being involved in the attack, according to The Hill.

While lawyer wellness is often a topic in the media, there is now an academic article addressing the business case for promoting and prioritizing lawyer wellness. Written originally for the Villanova Law Review, the four-part article (1) provides an overview of studies demonstrating the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse issues among the legal profession; (2) looks at the personal and professional risk factors that contribute to mental health and addiction; (3) investigates why firms mostly turn a “blind eye” to attorney well-being; and (4) makes the business case for promoting well-being, highlighting the direct and indirect costs of not doing so. Read more from Georgetown University Law Center Associate Professor Jarrod F. Reich in The Practice from Harvard Law.

The U.S. Department of Justice informed the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday that it will no longer defend the Trump-era "public charge" rule, NBC News reports. The policy, which had been challenged in court, had sought to impose new limits on the admission of immigrants considered likely to become overly dependent on government benefits. The Department of Homeland Security had announced in 2019 that it would expand the definition of "public charge" to include noncash government benefits (such as Medicaid, supplemental nutrition and federal housing assistance) and other factors such as age, financial resources, employment history, education and health, in a move to limit immigration into the country.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery and Secretary of State Tre Hargett have signed letters written by their Republican colleagues criticizing H.R. 1, a Democratic-backed federal voting rights bill making its way through the U.S. legislature. Slatery signed on to a letter written by the Indiana attorney general contending that the measure betrays “Constitutional deficiencies and alarming mandates that, if passed, would federalize state elections and impose burdensome costs and regulations on state and local officials.” Hargett signed on to a letter written by the Alabama secretary of state, which claims the bill is “a dangerous overreach by the federal government” into state-run elections. The bill passed the U.S. House along party lines last week. Tennessee Lookout has more on the legislation.

The U.S. Senate today confirmed Merrick Garland as the nation’s next attorney general, The Hill reports. Senators voted 70-30 to approve the nomination, easily topping the 50 votes needed. The paper notes that the vote came just days before the five-year anniversary of when then-President Obama nominated Garland to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Garland never received a hearing on that nomination. He has been serving on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1997.

If you missed our ethics program Top 5 BPR Complaints of 2020 and How to Avoid Them in the Future in January, you are in luck! The TBA will air a special rebroadcast of the CLE on Tuesday from noon to 1 p.m. CDT. Brittany Lavalle, a disciplinary counsel with the Board of Professional Responsibility, will review the most common complaints the board received last year and discuss with attendees how to avoid similar pitfalls in 2021.