The Tennessee State Senate today voted 27-5 to expel Sen. Katrina Robinson, D-Memphis, the Tennessean reports. The move, a first for the chamber, comes after Robinson was convicted on federal wire fraud charges. Robinson has decried the effort as racist and misogynistic. She called the expulsion a "procedural lynching" today. In a statement after the vote, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, said, “While the expulsion of a Senator for the first time in history was not something any of us wished to see, it was a necessary action. The integrity of the Senate is of paramount importance. Senator Robinson was given every consideration and due process." 

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently granted review to six cases. The Raybin Supreme Court Hot List reviews the cases, which raise issues including malicious prosecution, the GTLA, withdrawals of voluntary dismissals, criminal jury instructions, consecutive sentencing and the Competitive Cable and Video Services Act. Read more here.

Rutherford County senior judicial commissioner Jacob Flatt is withdrawing as a Republican candidate for juvenile court judge, the Daily News Journal reports. The move leaves Travis Lampley, who is running as a Republican, and Andrae Crismon, who is running as an independent, to seek the seat being vacated by Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport, who announced in January that she would not seek re-election. Lampley is an assistant district attorney for the 16th Judicial District and works on cases involving children and adults in Cannon County. A graduate of the Appalachian School of Law, Lampley started his career as a prosecutor in the Davidson County District Attorney's Office and as general counsel for the Department of Children’s Services. Crismon recently left Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands where he worked for nearly 15 years, serving eight years as managing attorney and finally as director of the Volunteer Lawyers Program.

Gov. Bill Lee is planning to create an Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee’s Howard Baker Center for Public Policy, the UT Daily Beacon reports. Lee made the announcement in his State of the State address Monday night. Lee said the institute would educate students on American civics and instill patriotism at the university. He also announced a partnership with Hillsdale College in Michigan to bring that school’s philosophy on civics education to Tennessee. Lee said he hopes the institute will be a center of civics, not just for the state, but also for the country. “This will be a flagship for the nation — a beacon celebrating intellectual diversity at our universities and teaching how a responsible, civic-minded people strengthens our country and our communities,” he said. 

Soddy Daisy Judge Marty Lasley last night dismissed all charges against Hugo Garcia Padilla after Nashville Assistant District Attorney Tammy Meade said she was "comfortable and confident" that Padilla was not the man who fired two shots toward a pregnant female, Chattanoogan.com reports. Meade had been brought into the case after Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston recused himself. Officials now say that an arrest warrant has been issued for Hugo Garcia Robles. Meade said the two men with similar names live near one another and drive similar vehicles. Witnesses also gave a "very vague description" of the shooter, which contributed to the mix up. The case garnered statewide attention when Pinkston accused his campaign opponent Coty Wamp of witness tampering. Wamp had been arguing that Padilla was innocent of the charges.

University of Memphis Law School Dean Kate Schaffzin joined fellow deans from across the country on Friday for a virtual White House event celebrating schools that responded to the attorney general’s call to action to address the pandemic’s housing and eviction crisis. During the event, the White House announced that response to the call for action was “swift and wide.” Over the course of five months, more than 2,100 law students spent 81,000 hours serving 10,000 households. Memphis Law and Vanderbilt University Law School were among the 99 law schools that joined the effort. Read more about the initiative and the specific activities Memphis Law undertook to reduce evictions in its community. Watch a replay of the event on YouTube.

Lawyers are by nature pessimistic, having to envision the worst possible outcomes for clients and then work to protect them. Martin Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says attorneys’ comfort with “catastrophizing” can carry over into their personal lives with negative ramifications. Seligman encourages attorneys to work to develop optimism – the belief that one can make a positive difference in the world now and well into the future. Optimism plays an important role in our lives, including creating perseverance while also fighting off depression. In a recent presentation, Seligman highlighted concrete actions that can help us shift from pessimism to optimism. Read more in the ABA Journal.

Do you know of an event or program taking place in honor of Black History Month? Email us with a link or description of the event for publication in an upcoming issue of TBA Today.  

TEDxNashville, an independently organized program from the TED Talks series, has curated a selection of talks in honor and celebration of Black History Month. See Tamar Smithers, senior director of education and exhibitions for The National Museum of African American Music, talk about breaking the barriers that exist between underprivileged children and access to museums. Watch Nashville Metro Councilwoman Zulfat Suara, an African Muslim woman who emigrated to Tennessee, discuss the unexpected champions she found during her campaign for council. Vanderbilt Professor David Ikard explains how we are all worse off when we whitewash black history. Finally, Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor discusses the often overlooked African origins of American country music, including the story of the now well-known song Wagon Wheel.

In a private ceremony yesterday, Jill E. McCook took her oath of office and became the newest U.S. magistrate judge in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the Chattanoogan reports. She succeeds Magistrate Judge H. Bruce Guyton, who retired after serving the court since 2003. McCook has worked as an attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority for the past four years. Previously, she was in private practice, served as a law clerk to District Judge Thomas A. Varlan, and was an adjunct professor in legal process at the University of Tennessee College of Law. McCook is a TBA member and a 2018 graduate of the TBA Leadership Law program. A public investiture will take place in the coming months.