The annual TBA Academy offers an exciting opportunity for Tennessee attorneys to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. The 37th Annual Academy will take place Dec. 6-7 in Washington, D.C. A select group of Tennessee attorneys will be able to take part in a private ceremony before the court and earn three hours of CLE credit. The group will stay at the Hay Adams Hotel, where the TBA has obtained a special rate for participants. Registration materials must be submitted by Oct. 1. Learn more online or contact TBA Meetings Director Therese Byrne, 615-277-3208, with any questions.

Nashville’s Metro Council is renewing its efforts to end the city’s contract with private prison operator CoreCivic, WPLN reports. A report saying the city would be on the hook for $35 million per year delayed earlier efforts to end the contract, but Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall is now saying the budget impact would be “minimal.” Details weren’t immediately available, but Hall said one possibility is that the sheriff’s office could assume control of the Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility, currently run by CoreCivic, within two years and with a $5 million start-up cost for the transition. Councilmember Emily Benedict who is co-sponsoring the effort, wrote in a statement that CoreCivic’s profits are “based on imprisoning as many people as possible at the lowest possible cost because that is how they make money for themselves and their shareholders. The motivation of their business is profit, not people.”

Gov. Bill Lee yesterday issued an executive order extending COVID-19 civil liability protection to health care providers, the Tennessean reports. Lee’s executive order applies to health care providers like hospitals, nursing homes and the health care workers employed there. "This order provides limited liability protection, with respect to the services they render that are not considered gross negligence or willful misconduct," Lee said of the order. He also said state law only allows him to take such action for health care workers and that the legislature must still act to provide protection for other entities. Lee intends to call a special session, but did not say when that will occur.

Despite a Nashville judge’s order last month to expand absentee voting for all eligible voters, state officials say they plan to enforce a requirement that first-time voters who register by mail cast their ballots in-person, the Associated Press reports. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law sought to block the in-person requirement in a court filing last month, saying it’s unclear if the judge’s order allows that group to vote by mail. The state responded last week, saying that it and county officials have moved forward under the expectation that the first-time voting requirement “would apply as usual in the upcoming elections.” If that requirement were blocked, the state says election officials would have to canvass all absentee ballot applications, identify those who were rejected because they were first-time voters who registered by mail and then contact those voters to re-submit an absentee ballot application—all before the July 30 deadline. It is unclear how many voters that would rule out for absentee voting before the Aug. 6 primary.  

Circuit Court Judge Justin C. Angel announced yesterday that the 12th Judicial District is set to receive $140,625 in new grants, the Chattanoogan reports. That award amount will go toward the installation of a new video arraignment system in the General Sessions and Circuit Court courtrooms throughout the 12th Judicial District, which includes Bledsoe, Sequatchie, Marion, Rhea, Franklin and Grundy counties. The district also received $159,815 from a Courtroom Security Grant earlier this year, bringing its grant total to $300,440. Judge Angel, who is presiding judge of the 12th Judicial District, says the new technology will save all six counties an “immense amount of time and money,” while also preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an order cancelling the July 28- 29 Uniform Bar Examination, citing the increase of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state and in Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville where the July exam was scheduled to take place. All those registered for the July exam should now expect to sit for the Sept. 30- Oct. 1 exam, which is moving ahead as planned. President of the Board of Law Examiners Bill Harbison said in today’s press release, “We understand that this has been a difficult time for recent law school graduates and the Board is committed to making the Uniform Bar Examination available to all July 2020 applicants before the end of the year, absent any new “safer at home” orders or other significant changes.” Other states are making similar decisions, including Florida, whose Board of Bar Examiners yesterday canceled the July in-person exam, opting to instead administer an online exam in August. 

Need a quick update in the areas of law you deal with every day? The TBA’s 2020 Summer FastTrack program will be held as a virtual program with sessions specifically designed for practitioners in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville. The Memphis program will take place on Aug. 7, the Nashville program will take place on Aug. 14 and the Knoxville program will take place on Aug. 21. All programs will be presented via live webcast.

Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk yesterday announced his office will no longer prosecute those found in possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana, WPLN reports. Arrests and citations for marijuana are falling, but the percentage of those charged who are Black is rising. Funk addressed that issue, saying marijuana charges disproportionately impact minorities in the city and do “little to promote public health, and even less to promote public safety.” Funk also expects the new policy, which went into effect yesterday, to impact the city’s finances by eliminating jail housing expenses for those cases.

The Tennessee Bar Association will be closed tomorrow, July 3, in observance of Independence Day. The office will reopen on Monday at 8:30 a.m. CDT with all staff working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Kim Helper, 21st District Attorney General, has been elected by fellow members of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference (TNDAGC) to serve on the organization’s executive committee. Helper was appointed as district attorney general in April 2008 by Gov. Phil Bredesen. She was elected in 2008 and again in 2014. Prior to her current role, she worked as an assistant attorney general in the Criminal Justice Division. She is a past president of the TNDAGC Executive Committee and has served on the Tennessee Bar Association Board of Governors. The Williamson Herald has the news.