A ban on abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome or because of race or gender of the fetus has again been reinstated by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Associated Press reports. The ban was part of Gov. Bill Lee’s 2020 anti-abortion measure that also banned abortion as early as six weeks. That portion of the bill has remained blocked from going into effect. The appeals court had blocked the so-called reason ban from being enforced in September, but yesterday temporarily allowed it to take effect at the request of the attorney general’s office. In her dissent, Circuit Judge Karen Nelson Moore wrote that the appeals court is waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mississippi’s ban on abortions will affect Tennessee’s case. She wrote that such “stay-and-delay tactics” are “harming both the substance of our ultimate decision and our court’s legitimacy.”

The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Knox County Sheriff’s Office wrongly withheld public records from a University of Tennessee professor and should pay legal fees in the case, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. However, the court also ruled that the sheriff’s office won’t have to pay nearly as much as the $78,000 in fees originally ordered. According to the court, professor Meghan Conley was eligible only for attorney’s fees related to the records that were “willfully denied,” or two of the 12 she sought. The case will likely go back to Knox County Chancellor John Weaver who will determine the new amount of fees or double down on his decision and keep the fees where they are. Conley’s attorney Andrew Fels, who worked the case for free, was originally awarded $55,762.50; Dean Hill Rivkin was awarded $19,440 for arguing attorney fees on Conley’s behalf; and Conley was awarded an additional $2,805.25.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously recommended that Gov. Bill Lee’s Tennessee Supreme Court nominee, Sarah Campbell, be confirmed to the bench, the Daily Memphian reports.  Campbell, 39, is a lawyer in the state attorney general’s office where she has defended the executive branch in lawsuits since she took the job in 2015. She was appointed to the high court by Lee in January and would replace the late Justice Cornelia A. Clark, who died in September. When asked what she would do when the state attorney general argues cases before the Supreme Court, Campbell replied that she would recuse herself if it was a case in which she had “substantial personal involvement.” She said her ethical decisions about conflicts of interest would be guided by the Tennessee Code of Judicial Conduct. 

TBA Director of Public Policy & Government Affairs Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorneys and TBA lobbyists Brad Lampley and Ashley Harbin are back for another episode of TBA Legislative Updates. In this edition, Schwarz and Lampley review the governor’s State of the State address and give an update on the professional privilege tax. Harbin also details Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting at which Tennessee Supreme Court nominee Sarah Campbell was interviewed by state lawmakers. Legislative Updates airs every Thursday on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts.  

A number of lawyers have been reinstated after being suspended for failure to complete required CLE hours. Of the group, 14 were suspended in 2021 for 2020 violations, two were suspended in 2020 for 2109 violations, one was suspended in 2019 for 2019 violations, one was suspended in 2017 for 2016 violations and one was suspended in 2014 for 2013 violations. The TBA also has records of all administrative suspensions and reinstatements going back to 2005. See all lists here.

The Tennessee Supreme Court suspended 23 attorneys on Tuesday for failure to pay the annual registration fee. Sixteen of them also failed to file proof that client funds are held in an IOLTA-compliant account. View the Feb. 2 fee suspension order and IOLTA suspension order. See the list of all lawyers suspended for fee and IOLTA violations in 2022 or access all administrative suspensions dating back to 2005.

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has reinstated Professor Anming Hu two years after he was accused of espionage by the U.S. government, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The university terminated Hu after he was indicted in 2020 on three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements related to his interactions with a China-based university. Those charges were thrown out by a federal judge in 2021. Hu’s attorney, Phil Lomonaco, said his client, a nanotechnology expert, returned to UT this week with tenure. He received $300,000 worth of funding to restart his research program and has been provided similar lab space.

The Belmont University College of Law Student Bar Association will hold its annual Barristers Ball on March 4 but already has started raising funds for AWAKE Tennessee, a grassroots nonprofit organization that advocates for female and child advancement through education and policy change. Donations may be made online or mailed to Belmont University College of Law, C/O Grace Benitone, SBA Vice President, 1901 15th Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37212. Checks should be made out to AWAKE Tennessee. All funds raised will be presented to the organization at the Barristers Ball.

In honor of Black History Month, the ABA Journal is recognizing 14 groundbreaking Black lawyers. The magazine says the attorneys selected were pioneers in their fields, using their law degrees to make history in courtrooms, legislatures and even newsrooms. Learn more about such trailblazing lawyers as Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Fred Gray, Barbara Jordan, Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas and Barack Obama.

The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance are participating in a consolidated enforcement action to stop a fraudulent precious metals scheme that resulted in solicitations exceeding $68 million from at least 450 investors across the country. The state entities have joined a complaint filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and 26 other state regulators to file a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The suit alleges that Safeguard Metals and Jeffrey Santulan, aka Jeffrey Hill, solicited investors nationwide by touting precious metals at grossly inflated prices that were not disclosed. In Tennessee, nine investors were defrauded out of $2.1 million.