On Monday, the families who sued to force a mask requirement in Knox County Schools said they would accept tying the rule to CDC recommendations, the News Sentinel and WATE report, while on the same day Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and state Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Farragut, each pledged $5,000 to support a lawsuit against the county’s board of education aimed at ending a court-enforced mask mandate in Knox County Schools. Masks have been required in Knox County Schools since Sept. 28 when Judge Ronnie Greer said the school system must enforce the same mandate that was in place during the 2020-2021 school year. If Greer opts to go along with the families' motion, Knox County students still must wear masks, but that could change if community levels of COVID-19 go down. 

University of Tennessee College of Law Professor Ben Barton is set to release a new book next week that will provide an in-depth look at the U.S. Supreme Court. “The Credentialed Court: Inside the Cloistered, Elite World of American Justice,” combines empirical studies of every justice’s background from John Jay to Amy Coney Barrett that demonstrate how today’s justices arrive on the court with much narrower experiences than their predecessors. “One thing I learned is that these justices lived very varied and sometimes pretty bizarre lives,” Barton said. “Historically the court has included a former President, a former running back who led the NFL in rushing, America’s greatest civil rights attorney, and a justice who practiced both law and medicine.” The book will be released on March 8. Read more from the College of Law’s website.

Howard University School of Law will be hosting a free virtual screening and discussion of the documentary “In the Executioner's Shadow” on Wednesday. The event will begin at 4 p.m. EST. All are invited to attend. Email tmcivilrightscenter@gmail.com to RSVP and receive the log in instructions.

Shelby County Commissioners are set to fill the vacant District 33 state Senate seat during a special meeting on March 3, the Daily Memphian reports. The vacancy was created after former Democratic Sen. Katrina Robinson was expelled by the Senate following her conviction on four counts of wire fraud. Commissioners had debated whether to fill the empty seat given the General Assembly’s short election-year session, but decided to move forward after Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, told commissioners that filling the vacancy was urgent. The deadline to submit an application to the commission for the vacant seat ended today at noon CST.

Five applicants will be considered by the Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments for an upcoming vacancy on the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Middle Section that was created after Judge Richard H. Dinkins announced he would not run for reelection. Ashonti T. Davis, James A. Haltom, Alexander Stuart Rieger, Joycelyn A. Stevenson and Jeffrey Usman have applied for the role. The council will interview all candidates at a virtual hearing on March 18 at 10 a.m. CST. Those interested may watch a livestream of the hearing on the Administrative Office of the Courts' YouTube page or may watch the livestream in person at the office, located at 511 Union St., Nashville City Center, Ste. 600, Nashville 37219. Read more on each applicant from the AOC.

An agreement for Johnson & Johnson and pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen to pay $26 billion to 52 states and territories for their role in the opioid crises has been finalized. Attorney General Herbert Slatery announced final approval of the deal last week following successful state sign-on and subdivision sign-on periods. The agreement comes after three years of negotiations to resolve more than 4,000 claims from state and local governments across the country. Slatery and North Carolina’s attorney general spearheaded negotiations in the deal, which is the second largest multistate agreement in U.S. history. 150 local governments in Tennessee joined the settlement including every county and all cities with populations of 25,000 or more. The state will now receive $600 million over 18 years. Money will start flowing to state and local governments in the second quarter of 2022. Read more from the AG’s office.

Nashville-based law firms Lewis Thomason PC and Manson Johnson Conner PLLC today announced they have formed a “strategic collaboration,” the Nashville Post reports. According to a press release, the collaboration is “designed to further grow and enhance client services.” Manson Johnson Conner founder, Richard Manson, said the collaboration “would allow both firms exponential growth,” noting the positive impact that Lewis Thomason co-founder Clure Morton had on his life. “Together, our firms are redefining how we make a difference in the legal community,” Manson said. “The spotlight that 2020 placed on various aspects of American culture highlights the fact that equitable action — including diverse voices in business — will allow us to practice law in a new way.”

President Joe Biden on Friday officially nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman nominated to the high court, the Associated Press reports. If confirmed, Jackson would fill the vacancy created by retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she clerked  early in her legal career. A Harvard Law graduate, Jackson served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission — the agency that develops federal sentencing policy — before becoming a federal judge in 2013. Biden last year nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. According to National Public Radio, Biden is expected to talk about the nomination during his first State of the Union address tomorrow night. Other issues the president is expected to address include rising inflation, Russia’s military advance on Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voting begins tomorrow for the 2022 TBA election. Two candidates are competing for the vice presidential office — Nashville attorney Ed Lanquist and Franklin attorney David Veile — with voting continuing through April 1. The vice president will serve in that role in the 2022-2023 bar year, then as president-elect the following year, and TBA president in 2024-2025. Three candidates are competing for the two Middle Grand Division Governor positions — Mary Dohner-Smith, Nashville; Zachary Jones, Fayetteville; and Billy Leslie, Nashville. Access to the electronic ballot will be sent from the email address TBA.Election@intelliscanvotes.com.  Please check your spam filters if you do not receive a ballot notification. Please feel free to reach out to elections@tnbar.org if you have any questions or concerns.

The Tennessee Supreme Court last week heard arguments in the case of State of Tennessee v. Tyshon Booker, which challenges the constitutionality of mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles convicted of murder, WPLN reports. Booker was 16 when he shot and killed G’Metrik Caldwell in Knoxville during a botched robbery. Attorneys for Booker did not argue his innocence in the crime, but instead took aim at the state’s 51-year minimum sentence for anyone, regardless of age, found guilty of first-degree murder. They argue the law violates Booker’s eighth amendment protection from cruel and unusual punishment. The state argued the law is constitutional because it fulfills the U.S. Supreme Court’s requirement that juveniles be allowed the chance for parole. However, that could soon change if state lawmakers pass the “Truth in Sentencing” bill, which effectively eliminates early release for many crimes, including murder. The high court will consider how to proceed in Booker’s case while that legislation makes it way through the General Assembly. The justices are expected to reconvene in early April.