The Justice Department’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division has partnered with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to launch the Whistleblower Rewards Program, which will offer monetary incentives to individuals who report postal-related antitrust crimes and other offenses that harm consumers, taxpayers and free market competition across industries. Under the program, whistleblowers may receive up to 30% of any criminal fines recovered for credible information leading to convictions for illegal activities such as price-fixing, bid-rigging and market allocation. The program aims to help investigators break through the secrecy of antitrust crimes and is operated at no additional cost to taxpayers, according to a press release from the department.

The Trump administration has not decided where it would deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia if he is freed from a Tennessee jail, but a U.S. immigration official said Thursday that Mexico and South Sudan could be willing to accept him, according to the Associated Press. Thomas Giles, an assistant director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), testified in federal court that ICE would detain Abrego Garcia as soon as he’s released to await trial on human smuggling charges. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis is considering Abrego Garcia’s request to order the U.S. government to send him to Maryland instead, a bid aimed at preventing the Trump administration from trying to deport him again. “I’m deeply concerned that if there’s not some restraint on you, Mr. Abrego will be on another plane to another country,” Judge Xinis told Department of Justice lawyers on Friday.

The TBA will offer two engaging webcast replays with Stuart Teicher this month, exploring legal ethics through pop culture. "The Perfect Pop Song and Attorney Ethics," streaming July 15, will reveal what makes a pop song “perfect” and connect its structure and lyrics to key ethics rules on competence, candor and communication. On July 16, "Ted Lasso and Attorney Ethics: Lessons in Life, Law, and Leadership" will highlight how the hit show’s moments of integrity and teamwork reflect the Rules of Professional Conduct and offer practical lessons for lawyers.

A judge ruled in favor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press in its lawsuit against the city of Chattanooga, council members and staff, establishing that open meetings laws were violated during non-public meetings on redrawing local voting districts, the Times Free Press reports. In an order last week granting the newspaper’s motion for summary judgment, the Chattanooga City Council must follow Tennessee’s Open Meetings Act and submit to one year of oversight, in addition to writing a semiannual report on its compliance. Every decade after federal census results are released, the council reorganizes and adjusts the map that determines how residents are represented in city government. The lawsuit, filed in 2022, claimed the redistricting process was too secretive, from closed-door redistricting committee meetings to a series of calls and emails between council members and city staff to make decisions about redistricting. According to the order, individual meetings between council members and staff resulted in map changes, so decisions were made in meetings that were not open to the public. The City Council will comply with the open meetings act, "which we believe they did," Chattanooga City Attorney Phillip Noblett said to the news outlet.

Thomas Jefferson Drake Jr., of Nashville, died July 8 at age 78. Drake graduated from the Nashville School of Law in 1988 and practiced as a solo attorney for 37 years. He believed his greatest service in life was helping others and providing the best legal advice possible. Drake was admitted to the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, and was a member of the Nashville Bar Association and the Tennessee Bar Association. Visitation will be held July 12, at Bellevue Presbyterian Church, 100 Cross Timbers Drive, Nashville 37221, from 9 to 11 a.m. CDT, followed by a memorial service at 11 a.m. CDT. Donations in his memory may be made to the Bellevue Exchange Club Foundation, memo: Tom Drake Memorial Scholarship, P.O. Box 210945, Nashville, TN 37221.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund on Monday dismissed its lawsuit challenging Fayette County’s 2021 electoral map as discriminatory after county lawmakers passed a new map that complies with the Voting Rights Act and U.S. Constitution, the Tennessee Lookout reports. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee in February, claimed the map adopted by the county commission in 2021 was chosen “at least in part with the intent to racially discriminate against Black voters.” The Tennessee comptroller’s local redistricting guide requires county legislative bodies to consider minority representation when redistricting. Black voters make up more than 25% of Fayette County’s population, but the 19-member county commission is entirely white. Fayette County rejected the allegations in the federal lawsuit but opted to review and revise the map. The commission unanimously approved a new electoral map with three majority-Black, single-member districts, which will be used in the 2026 election cycle. The federal lawsuit’s status is unclear, as the last court-ordered status update was submitted June 23, one day before the commission adopted the new map.

Tennessee's U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn is pushing to reduce air traffic controller shortages. Blackburn introduced the Control Tower Continuity Act on Thursday, which would allow air traffic controllers to be exempt from the mandatory retirement age of 61 as long as they meet certain standards and provide more flexibility during shortages, WSMV reports. Blackburn’s office said staffing has been a longstanding issue for the Federal Aviation Administration, which is short about 3,000 air traffic controllers nationwide. “Healthy and skilled air traffic controllers should not be forced to retire at age 61,” Blackburn said. “As the United States faces a shortage of air traffic controllers, Americans are forced to endure delays, cancellations and safety concerns. The Control Tower Continuity Act would empower healthy and experienced air traffic controllers to work beyond the current mandatory retirement age to address air traffic controller shortages.”

DeKalb County lawyer Lena Ann Graves Buck was publicly censured on July 9 by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Buck provided consultation regarding a workers’ compensation case to a client. Despite the client not signing a retainer agreement nor paying an attorney fee, Buck met with the client on three occasions during which she provided legal advice. Buck discussed the workers’ compensation issue with the client at two of the meetings, but did not apprise the client of a statute of limitations deadline. Over the next three years, Buck represented the client on a disability claim, though the client believed Buck also was handling the workers’ compensation matter. The client did not discover the statute of limitations had passed until several years later. In addition to these findings, the court determined that Buck entered into a business transaction with the client without first advising the client in writing of the desirability of seeking, or giving a reasonable opportunity to seek the advice of, independent legal counsel. The court found that these actions violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.8(a)(2) and 8.4(d).

The Tennessee Supreme Court issued a public censure to Davidson County attorney Zachary Ty Carden on July 9. The court found that Carden, while representing a client in a contested divorce action, failed to take proper action to submit his client’s discovery responses, resulting in the entry of a judgment against his client for opposing counsel’s fees. After the divorce action settled through mediation, the court found that Carden failed to take action to facilitate entry of the final divorce decree and did not respond to his client’s requests for information, delaying finalization of the divorce action. These actions were determined to violate Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 1.4 and 3.2.

Former Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice William Muecke "Mickey" Barker, who died in 2023, began his career as a judge in the Hamilton County Circuit Court. On Monday, Circuit Court Judge Alex McVeagh held a special celebration to honor Barker by moving his formal portrait to hang over the jury box. Former TBA President Marcy Eason, who was sworn in to that position in 2007 by then-Chief Justice Barker, said, "It was a poignant and special day in court. Judge McVeagh now rules on the bench that began his mentor and dear friend's judicial path." See a photo from the event.