The National High School Mock Trial Championship (NHSMTC) Board of Directors has appointed the TBA’s Young Lawyers Division and Public Education Coordinator StephanieVonnahme to the group’s Site Selection Committee. Vonnahme currently serves as NHSMTC’s Tennessee state competition coordinator, but in her new leadership role, will work with high school mock trial coordinators from around the country to identify hosts for upcoming competitions and to streamline information on the group’s website to make it more user-friendly for hosts. Additionally, mock trial coordinators interact, brainstorm and pose pressing mock trial questions to one another during the Coordinator’s Roundtable. The Tennessee High School Mock Trial competition takes place annually in the spring, but was cancelled this year due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The Trump administration has rescinded a controversial policy that would have forced international students to leave the U.S. if their courses were being taught only online, The Hill reports. The reversal comes after Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Northeastern University sued the administration, later joined by Vanderbilt University and a number of other colleges and universities across the country. The Harvard-MIT-Northeastern suit argued that the new policy was designed to “force universities to reopen in-person classes,” thereby increasing risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus. It asked a federal judge in Boston to issue a permanent injunction against the policy, but that judge this morning announced that both parties had come to a resolution and will “return to the status quo.”

Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, is being fined $10,500 by the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance after an audit found his political action committee had failed to provide receipts for $99,625 in campaign expenditures, the Nashville Post reports. The audit, which inspected Casada’s campaign finances from Jan. 1- June 30, 2018, also found his PAC failed to report $1,713 in contributions and $2,589 in expenditures. As a representative, Casada himself was found to have failed to report $1,063 in contributions, $1,520 in expenses and failed to provide supporting documents for $5,212 in campaign expenditures. Casada did supply bank statements reflecting his campaign purchases, a potential reason for his fine being $10,500 instead of the $2.9 million he was eligible to receive if the bureau had levied a civil penalty for every missing receipt.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday canceled the in-person Uniform Bar Examination scheduled for Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 citing the current trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although “stringent public health and safety protocols” were planned, the court said an in-person test could not be safely administered with reasonable certainty. To help mitigate delay and uncertainty for recent law school graduates, the court instead ordered the Board of Law Examiners to administer an online, remotely-proctored assessment on Oct. 5-6. The test will be comprised of questions prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, including three multistate essays and 100 multistate questions. Although successful applicants will not earn a portable Uniform Bar Examination score, the board has entered into reciprocal agreements with the District of Columbia, Maryland and Massachusetts, and is working to establish similar agreements with other jurisdictions. Also today, the court extended the deadline for withdrawing from the July exam with a refund until Sept. 1, and extended authorization for supervised practice through July 1, 2022. Read the order or learn more here.

In a related story, WBIR talks to six law school graduates in East Tennessee who have been studying nonstop for the bar exam and share their frustration of being in limbo while financially and emotionally drained.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., today blocked the Trump administration from resuming executions just hours before the first federal death sentence since 2003 was scheduled to be carried out, The Hill reports. Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered a preliminary injunction against the government while the courts hear from four death row inmates who are challenging new execution protocols announced last summer. Chutkan also found that the new protocols likely violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Department of Justice quickly filed notice it will appeal the decision. Today's moves come after the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the execution could go forward despite concerns from victims' family members that traveling to the prison in the midst of the pandemic risked their safety. WSMV has that story.

Gov. Bill Lee signed a wide-ranging abortion ban into law today, but within a few hours, abortion rights groups filed suit against the legislation in the U.S. District Court in Nashville, the Tennessean reports. They also asked the judge to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the state from implementing the legislation while the challenge is litigated. Less than an hour later, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee issued a temporary restraining order. The ACLU of Tennessee noted that the ruling comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar Louisiana law with other bans being struck down in Mississippi and Ohio as well.

Rutherford County prosecutor John Zimmermann was reappointed to the legislative committee of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference in June despite accusations of civil rights violations and racial bias that are pending against him in state and federal courts, the Tennessean reports. Zimmermann denies wrongdoing in the pending cases and a spokesperson for the conference says he has served on the panel for years. The cases involve the alleged use of race in the selection of jurors for the trial of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, and the alleged use of evidence he knew, or should have known, was insufficient to charge 17 businesses for selling CBD products in the "Operation Candy Crush" case.

Honky-tonk owners in Nashville will not be granted a temporary restraining order over COVID-19 restrictions, Fox 17 reports. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Eli Richardson rejecting their request found that the government has authority to shut down businesses to get a handle on rising coronavirus cases, citing similar rulings in other states. Lawyers for the bar owners said they will continue “vigorously prosecuting the case ... and likely move for additional injunctive relief as the facts develop...”. In related news, the Daily Memphian reports that Memphis bars also have sued over pandemic-related closings.

Lawyers are invited to join Clio, the TBA’s benefit partner for legal practice software, on July 22 at 9 a.m. CDT for a special meetup. The session "How to be an Advocate for Access to Justice and Legal Reform" will feature representatives from the ACLU and the California Innocence Project speaking on how lawyers can become stronger advocates for equal justice and reform and promote systemic change from within. Those who cannot attend the live session can still register to receive a recording of the program.

Vanderbilt Law School students with the Immigration Practice Clinic recently developed a resolution addressing an increase in discrimination and harassment against Asian and Pacific Islanders during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlighting the disproportionate impact the pandemic is having on the Latinx and African American communities. The Nashville Metropolitan Council approved the resolution on July 7. The students also have been working with Vanderbilt’s law librarian Sarah Dunaway to develop “COVID-19 and Racism: Legislative Responses” — a catalog of state and local responses to the disproportionate impact of the pandemic. The two projects were overseen by Karla McKanders, clinical professor of law, director of the Immigration Practice Clinic and immigrant and refugee law professor. Read more about the projects.