The Tennessee State Library and Archives will host a one-day-only public display of Tennessee’s three original constitutions in celebration of Statehood Day, TNJ: On the Hill reports. The documents will go on display from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. CDT on June 1 at the New Library and Archives building, located at 1001 Rep. John Lewis Way N. on the northeast corner of the Bicentennial Mall State Park in Nashville. Several additional events and exhibits will be held to celebrate Tennessee’s 225th Statehood Day, including a special exhibit from the Tennessee State Museum and a special event at the Bicentennial Mall State Park featuring remarks from Gov. Bill Lee. Statehood Day events are free and reservations are not required.

The TBA will host a roundtable discussion next week, featuring panelists who will provide present-day insights of judicial independence in the shadows of our separation-of-powers history. In the Shadow of History: Separation of Powers and Tennessee Courts will take place on May 26 from 3 until 4 p.m. CDT. Todd Presnell of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings will moderate a panel that will include Nashville School of Law Dean William C. Koch Jr., University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law professor Steven J. Mulroy and former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice and University of Tennessee College of Law professor Penny J. White. The roundtable is free and open to the public, with optional CLE credit for a fee of $45.

The Tennessee Department of Human Services will soon release details on how the state plans to spend the more than $700 million it has amassed in unused Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grants from the federal government. Commissioner Clarence Carter told the Tennessean he was as “giddy as a 7-year-old on Christmas morning,” to begin spending the funding, which will be doled out based on an agreement between Gov. Bill Lee and state lawmakers. Under the new plan, which was passed by the General Assembly during the legislative session, the state will not be able to stockpile more than $191 million in TANF funding at a time, meaning officials will have to shed hundreds of millions from the current reserves. The final plan will include seven newly designed regional programs and increased funding to help people pursuing trade school, among other things.

Kentucky-based Stites & Harbison — with offices in Memphis, Nashville and Franklin — has expanded its operations to Ohio with a new office in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, the firm recently announced. Led by member Robin D. Miller, the office is currently operating with the help of attorneys from nearby Covington, Kentucky, but said it hopes to hire more local lawyers by the end of the year. The office will allow Stites & Harbison attorneys the ability “to better serve our growing client base across the state of Ohio and Midwest region," said firm chair Marjorie A. Farris. The firm also has offices in Georgia, Indiana and Virginia.

A vacancy in the state House created by the death of Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, ultimately will be filled by a special election, but the Hamilton County Commission is empowered to make an interim appointment, the Times Free Press reports. Carter, a former Hamilton County General Sessions judge, attorney and businessman, died last Friday. Two Republicans whose names are being mentioned for the District 29 seat are Greg Vital, president and co-founder of Morning Pointe Assisted Living, and Collegedale commissioner Ethan White, a realtor who challenged Carter in the 2016 primary. The district includes the Ooltewah, Collegedale and Harrison areas of the county.

The medical license of state Sen. Joey Hensley, a doctor in Hohenwald, was put on probation last year after he admitted to writing 47 prescriptions for a second cousin with whom he was in a sexual relationship. At a disciplinary hearing before the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners in October 2020, Hensley said under oath that the relationship lasted 10 weeks, so the board only disciplined him for two prescriptions that fell within that time frame. According to The Tennessean, transcripts and depositions obtained by the paper indicate the relationship lasted “years, not months.” These documents “raise consequential questions about whether the senator was honest while testifying at his discipline hearing last October,” the paper writes. Hensley, who has served in the General Assembly since 2003, declined to comment on the allegations.

Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston reportedly hired his brother-in-law, Kerry Clewell, to serve as a criminal investigator on a high-profile case although state personnel records indicate Clewell is a secretary, the Times Free Press reports. The case involves the disappearance of now-17-year old Daphne Westbrook, who has been missing since October 2019. Westbrook’s mother says she has been working with Pinkston and Clewell and “can't thank them enough for what they've done.” The district attorney's office says the state records are wrong and Clewell is an investigator. The paper says the discrepancy in paperwork “is one of many unanswered questions that have arisen after last week's revelations … about Pinkston employing relatives in his office.”

Memphis police officer Patric Ferguson, who was accused of killing a man in the back of his squad car and disposing of the body earlier this year, has been indicted on first-degree murder, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich announced today. Ferguson was also charged with especially aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, official misconduct and official oppression. He is being held without bond. Investigators said that Ferguson went to the home of Robert Lee Howard Jr. on Jan. 6, abducted him at gunpoint and killed him. Ferguson then left the body in one location but later moved it to another location, where it was recovered on Jan. 10.

Above the Law will host a free webinar next Monday on the basics of non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs. The program will address what NFTs are as well as an array of legal issues that can arise with their usage, including securities laws, money laundering laws, financial regulatory issues, patents and other intellectual property protections, licensing, monitoring and enforcement. James Gatto with Sheppard Mullin LLP, who has been involved with blockchain technology since 2012, will speak and take questions. Register here.

U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson last week denied a landlord’s request for a temporary restraining order to block a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule requiring debt collectors and lawyers who file eviction cases to notify renters of their eligibility for relief under the federal eviction moratorium. Richardson said such an order was not necessary since the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals previously refused to stay a district court decision that found the ban unconstitutional. If the ban is not binding in Tennessee, the need to give notice is moot, he argued, according to Reuters. But he cautioned that the appeals court decision is not final and his comments should be considered as "dicta" and not be interpreted to give landlords "cover" for ignoring the notification rule.