Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee secured a quick victory on Tuesday, the Tennessean reports. The Associated Press called the race at 7:02 p.m. CST, within minutes of polls closing. With nearly 90% of the vote counted by 11:30 p.m., Lee had 65% of the vote and carried all but two Tennessee counties. Democratic nominee Dr. Jason Martin conceded the race shortly before 9:30 p.m. CST, telling supporters Lee was "kind and gracious" in his concession phone call. Read Lee's remarks about a second term after being named the winner. See results from all Tennessee races.

All four amendments to Tennessee’s constitution that were on the ballot yesterday have passed. They include: Amendment 1, which enshrines the state’s “right to work” law into the constitutional; Amendment 2, which removes a ban on clergy serving in the legislature; Amendment 3, which removes slavery as a possible punishment for a crime; and Amendment 4, which creates a line of succession for governors unable to temporarily serve. Read more about each amendment from the Tennessean.

All 99 seats in the Tennessee House of Representatives and half of the 33 seats in the state Senate were on the ballot this election season. In many cases, incumbents had a lock on their races, Nashville Public Radio reports. Coverage from the station includes news about the race to succeed disgraced former House Speaker Glen Casada, the new youngest member of the General Assembly, a replacement for indicted Republican Sen. Brian Kelsey, and the likelihood of a special election in Memphis after voters re-elected state Rep. Barbara Cooper, who died in October after ballots including her name were printed. The Commercial Appeal has election results from west Tennessee while KnoxNews has results in the east.

Former Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles beat Democrat Heidi Campbell in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, turning the district red for the first time in its recorded history and giving Republicans another seat in Congress, WPLN reports. Ogles will replace Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper, who announced he would not run for re-election after the Republican-led General Assembly changed the 5th District’s boundaries in January, splitting up Nashville’s reliably Democratic voting base. In other congressional races, both District 6 Rep. John Rose and District 7 Rep. Mark Green easily won over their Democratic challengers, Tennessee Lookout reports.

A group of U.S. Republican lawmakers recently issued a warning to corporate law firms over their work advising clients on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, Reuters reports. The Republicans wrote to 51 large U.S. and global law firms to say they would use their congressional oversight powers "to scrutinize the institutionalized antitrust violations being committed in the name of ESG.”

News Channel 5 is raising questions about a part-time employee in the Nashville district attorneys’ office who allegedly works very little but receives a $75,000 annual salary. A piece by Phil Williams suggests that Michael Brook frequently lists his work hours as occurring in the “middle of the night when no one else is around” and is “almost never recorded swiping through the office security system, logging into the computer system or sending an email.” Brook previously was finance director for the office until retiring in January 2020. Within days, though, the station says, he was submitting part time hours for compensation, and has consistently submitted them every single week for more than two years. When asked about Brook, Funk told the station, “Michael Brook is an important member of our office, has been for years."

Just one hour before the polls closed last night, only 117 voters out of 438 had visited the Davidson County Election Commission office to cast a corrected ballot, the Wilson Post reports. The report was based on comments from a worker at the office. The affected voters had been given the wrong ballots during early voting. The right to cast a corrected ballot was secured through a lawsuit settled earlier this week. Those provisional ballots will be counted only in the event of a contested election, Tennessee Lookout reports.

The Nashville law firm of King & Ballow is seeking litigation attorneys with three or more years of experience to handle document discovery, witness interviews, motion work, legal research and writing, court appearances and trial preparation. Candidates should be organized and have exceptional research and writing skills. Read the full job announcement and get instructions for applying on the TBA’s JobLink platform.

This year's Criminal Justice Law Forum will be held virtually on Dec. 14 with a focus on the mental health of criminal justice professionals. The four-hour program will include a panel discussion of real courtroom exchanges where things became heated and emotions took over, followed by a presentation on how to cope in similar situations. Experts also will explore techniques for self-care and how adverse childhood experiences can become the root causes of problematic behaviors later in life. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Robert Wedemeyer, Tennessee lawyers, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia Sean Deitrick and psychologist Lindsey O'Connell.

A new analysis from non-partisan think tank ThinkTennessee has found that the state’s policy of suspending driver’s licenses for failure to pay court debt has little impact on how much money the courts are able to recoup. According to the report, the practice creates additional challenges for people who are often living in poverty. “By making it harder to get to work and earn the money needed to pay off court costs, driver’s license revocations risk being a counterproductive policy, potentially trapping low-income Tennesseans in a cycle of court debt and poverty,” the report’s authors wrote. They added that the state should consider ending the practice. The practice was stopped and ruled unconstitutional in 2018, but the pause was temporary and was restarted in July 2021. The Commercial Appeal has more on the story.