The Tennessee Senate passed two measures on Monday that are part of the majority’s “Immigration 2026” package. SB1915 would require local governments to verify a person is lawfully present in the country before receiving government benefits. The bill also would give the state attorney general the authority to investigate complaints and withhold state funds from local governments that do not comply. The House version of the bill passed the State & Local Government Committee on March 31 and is set to go before the Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee on April 8. Also Monday, the Senate passed SB1922, which would require state and local governments to verify immigration status before hiring workers. The House previously adopted its version of that bill, HB1705, on March 16. Other immigration related bills making their way through the legislative process include those directing courts (HB1707/SB1952) and local governments (HB2219/SB2223) to cooperate with federal immigration authorities; requiring tracking of undocumented patients and students (HB1711/SB2108); and creating criminal penalties for undocumented drivers of commercial vehicles (HB1706/SB1587) and anyone living in Tennessee after a final deportation order has been issued (HB1704/SB1779). WPLN has a round up of these measures.

Legislation to limit lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of new state laws has passed both the House and Senate and is now on its way to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk. HB1971 passed the House on March 31. The Senate passed the House bill yesterday. The bill repeals a provision the legislature passed eight years ago that allowed Tennesseans to challenge the constitutionality of new state laws before they suffer any harm. The Tennessean reports that Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti — whose office defends new laws in court — requested lawmakers repeal the measure and reinstate barriers removed in 2018. If signed into law, the measure would require challengers to prove actual damage had been done to have standing to sue. The Tennessean has more on the legislation.

The list of those applicants who achieved a passing score on the February 2026 Uniform Bar Examination in Tennessee will be released April 9 by the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners. Results will be posted by the board by 2 p.m. CDT and will be available on the TBA website as soon as they are released. 

The Tennessee state House Judiciary Committee has passed legislation — HB2079/SB1992 — that would make it a felony for a person to engage in “conduct intended to influence the outcome of an event” which that person has also bet on through a contract on a prediction market like Kalshi or Polymarket. The bill, which was amended by the committee, now goes to the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee. The Nashville Banner reports that prediction markets, which have exploded in popularity, have been under increased legal and media scrutiny after traders have made enormous profits off of bets made on national and world events. Both Kalshi and Polymarket currently offer users the opportunity to place wagers on the outcomes of upcoming Tennessee elections. 

Shelby County lawyer Theodore Iver Jones received a public censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court on April 1. Jones was hired to represent a client to obtain clear title on two separate properties. The court found that throughout the representation, Jones failed to act diligently on behalf of his client and misrepresented the status of the case to his client. These actions violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3 and 8.4.

On April 1, the Tennessee Supreme Court suspended Jeffrey Dennis Johnson from the practice of law for two years, with 30 days to be served on active suspension and the remainder on probation. The court conditioned probation on Johnson’s engagement of a practice monitor, completion of additional continuing legal education hours and payment of incurred litigation costs. Johnson represented a client in a criminal matter after representing the client in a separate criminal matter some years previously. The court found that the new representation was improperly conditioned upon the client making outstanding payments for the prior representation. In a subsequent motion to withdraw from the most recent representation, Johnson also made derogatory and disparaging statements about his client, and revealed confidential information related to the representation of the client without the client’s consent. These actions were found to violate Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 1.16, 3.5(e) and 8.4(d).

The Tennessee House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee voted to advanced voucher legislation with a wide-ranging amendment from the chair that reduced the expansion by 5,000 (authorizing 35,000 students rather than the 40,000 requested by Gov. Bill Lee) and added language that public school districts would benefit from a hold harmless clause of the program to the extent they verify the immigration status of students. According to the Nashville Banner, the subcommittee spent less than three minutes on the bill before voting 9-3 to recommend the amended bill for passage. Two Republicans — Rep. Gary Hicks, R-Rogersville, and Rep. Mark Cochran, R-Englewood, voted no.

President Donald Trump announced today that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi would leave the administration and move to “a much needed and important job in the private sector.” Trump called Bondi “a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend” and applauded her work driving down crime. Bondi’s deputy, Todd Blanche, was named acting attorney general. Blanche is a former New York prosecutor and white-collar defense attorney who was a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft before joining the president’s legal team. He defended Trump against criminal charges related to payments to an adult film star and against the now-defunct election subversion and classified documents prosecutions brought by a former Justice Department special counsel. The Hill has more on his career.

U.S. Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in a challenge to President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship. According to SCOTUSblog, the justices appeared skeptical of the government’s argument that the 14th Amendment was adopted to give newly freed enslaved people and their children citizenship. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer also argued that the founders could not have imagined the rise of “birth tourism,” where women come to the United States to give birth so their children have U.S. citizenship. The ACLU’s Cecillia Wang represented the challengers. She argued that the constitution establishes a “fixed bright-line” rule for citizenship that is “workable” and “prevents manipulation.” Trump, in a first for a sitting U.S. president, attended the proceedings and remained for Sauer’s presentation.

Women incarcerated at the Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center in West Tennessee are suing Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner (TDOC) Frank Strada for allegedly confiscating tablets that contained their digital property, family photos and messages from loved ones. According to the Nashville Banner, the suit accuses TDOC of promoting and profiting from a program offering the women the ability to purchase music and games on tablets where they also could receive emails and photos from loved ones. After launching the program, the department then allegedly confiscated the devices and replaced them with new tablets from another company. The suit was filed by national civil rights attorneys Thomas B. Harvey and Dami Animashaun, along with Nashville-based Kyle Mothershead with Relentless Advocacy.