Brandon Dragan, a third year student at Belmont University College of Law, is the winner of the 2021 ABA Journal/Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction. He will receive a $3,000 prize for his short story, “Advokat,” about a lawyer who decides to help a Russian man seeking to flee persecution. Dragan, who is of Russian and Ukrainian descent, got the idea for his short story after seeing a documentary about Chechnya, the ABA Journal reports. He originally wrote the story as part of Belmont’s Legal Fiction Workshop. The story will be published on ABAJournal.com during Thanksgiving week. Dragan moved to Nashville to pursue a songwriting career and later turned to writing fiction. 

The Joint Study Committee on Refugee Issues yesterday explored whether the state can regulate companies providing services to undocumented immigrants under federal contracts or levy stricter punishments on those aiding undocumented immigrants. Glenn Reynolds, professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, told the panel that the state has a significant amount of regulatory powers with regard to migrant-relocation facilities so long as those regulations don’t run afoul of federal law. Other speakers, including William Gill, an associate professor of law at the Duncan School of Law, talked about the abuse and political violence many refugees face in their home country and said some unaccompanied minors could qualify for asylum under a special juvenile classification. Tennessee Lookout has the story.

A federal judge today refused a request by landlords to put the Biden administration’s new eviction moratorium on hold saying her “hands are tied” by an appellate decision from last spring, PBS reports. Judge Dabney Friedrich said although she believes the new moratorium is substantially similar to the one she ruled was illegal in May, she is bound to follow a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court found that the moratorium falls within a 1944 law dealing with public health emergencies. On appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the moratorium to continue.

A federal court case against Tennessee’s recent TennCare waiver has been paused and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is reopening the federal comment period for the state’s block-grant style overhaul of the safety-net insurance program, the Nashville Post reports. The Biden administration has agreed to reopen the public comment period for a month. In exchange, groups currently suing over the waiver — including the Tennessee Justice Center — have suspended their lawsuit. The federal comment period is now open until Sept. 9.

Third Judicial District Chancellor Douglas T. Jenkins was recently installed as the new president of the Tennessee Trial Judges Association, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. He was appointed to the bench in 2013 and won reelection in 2014. He earned his law degree from the Nashville School of Law. Other officers also were named including 25th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge J. Weber McCraw, vice president; 30th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Valerie L. Smith, secretary; 29th Judicial District Chancellor Tony Childress, treasurer; and 3rd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Alex Pearson, parliamentarian. Another 16 judges were appointed to the group’s executive committee. 

No jury trials have been held in Shelby County since early last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now court officials worry that the potential make up of juries will further delay return to the courtroom, News 5 reports. Judge Chris Craft explains: “Attorneys on both sides are worried we won’t get a fair representation to pick the jury from. None of them want to try a case when we have a skewed jury pool because of the virus.” In addition to concerns about jury diversity, officials also are concerned about constitutional issues that arise when justice is delayed. Some defendants have been waiting in the Shelby County jail for nearly a year to get their day in court according to the station.

New ABA officers were installed on Tuesday at the end of the group’s annual meeting in Chicago. Detroit lawyer Reginald M. Turner assumed the role of ABA president, while New York dispute resolution lawyer Deborah Enix-Ross took office as president-elect. The ABA House of Delegates also met during the meeting and considered a number of policy issues. Among those adopted was a resolution calling on Congress to permit student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy without needing to prove undue hardship. Supporters of the change say it could help thousands of young lawyers grappling with a challenging job environment and $145,000 or more in student loans. Read about all proposals adopted.

In March, Tennessee's housing agency launched a statewide program providing aid to families having difficulty paying rent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fully funded by federal dollars, the program was expected to help 20,000 to 30,000 families remain in their homes for up to 12 months. But five months later, only a fraction of the money, about 4%, has gone out to just 2,400 families, the Tennessean reports. The reason according to state officials is lack of demand. In addition to the state aid, five localities — Memphis, Knox County, Nashville, Rutherford County and Shelby County — also received federal funds to set up similar programs. 

Campbell County attorney Kristie Nicole Anderson was reinstated to the practice of law on Aug. 9. She had been suspended on July 9 for one year with 30 days to be served on active suspension and the remainder on probation. The Tennessee Supreme Court conditioned reinstatement on Anderson’s engagement of a practice monitor to meet with her monthly during the probationary period to assess her case load, timeliness of tasks, adequacy of communication with clients and accounting procedures.

Federal agents have arrested a Knoxville man on charges he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, Knoxnews reports. Clifford Meteer is accused of climbing the stone handrailing of a staircase, entering the building and walking around for 30 minutes. Meteer allegedly talked about his actions on social media, sending friends private messages and posting a public comment on Facebook. The FBI began investigating his involvement after one of his relatives submitted an online tip. Meteer appeared in the local federal court Tuesday, was appointed a public defender and directed to appear in Washington, D.C., federal court on Aug. 17. The paper also has this overview of all 16 Tennesseans who have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 events.