Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Alex McVeagh yesterday won the Republican nomination for a Circuit Court judge seat according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. McVeagh and Chattanooga attorney Michele Coffman were both seeking the nomination in the race to replace former Circuit Court Judge Marie Williams, who stepped down from the bench six years before her term was set to expire. McVeagh received 17,365 votes to Coffman's 12,599. See all county primary election results.

Stephanie Williams yesterday won the Democratic primary for the Davidson County Circuit Court Division IV judge seat, which is responsible for divorces and adoptions. With no Republicans in the race, Williams effectively won the August general election as well, the Nashville Post reports. She defeated Tusca Alexis, Audrey Anderson and Stan Kweller, who had been appointed to the position in January 2023 by Gov. Bill Lee following the death of Judge Philip Smith. Kweller finished in fourth place with 9% of the vote. He will remain in the seat until the general election. In Robertson County, Ashleigh L. Travis won the Republican primary for Circuit Court judge Part VI. She was unopposed, the Tennessean reports.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti recently joined a coalition of 26 other state attorneys general in sending a letter to Meta Platforms Inc. demanding that Instagram stop “monetizing child exploitation content.” The group cites recent articles in The Wall Street Journal and New York Times that suggest Meta promoted minor accounts to “likely pedophiles.” In announcing the move, Skrmetti said, “My office is already suing Meta for its harms to children's mental health, and this latest report only adds to my concern about the risks Meta poses to Tennessee kids. Meta needs to do a better job of using its vast resources to protect our vulnerable youth.”

The writing section of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) will get an overhaul this summer with a greater emphasis on gauging analytical skills, according to Reuters. Currently, LSAT takers have 35 minutes to write an argumentative essay on a provided topic designed to demonstrate their logical reasoning. The updated writing section will give examinees 15 minutes to read different positions on a debatable topic, after which they will have 35 minutes to write an argument in which they take a position and address the strengths and weaknesses of the various ideas presented. The writing section, which is taken separately from the rest of the test, will debut on July 31, eight days before the first LSAT without logic games.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seeking $19.4 million in federal funds to increase security for the nine justices and assign protection of their homes to its own police force rather than the U.S. Marshals Service, citing "evolving" risks faced by the nation's top judicial body, reports Reuters. That funding would include $5.8 million to expand the security activities of the Supreme Court Police, its in-house security force, and $13.6 million to let the court's police take over the duties currently served by the Marshals Service of protecting the justices' homes. Serious threats against federal judges rose to 457 in fiscal year 2023, from 224 in fiscal 2021, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

TBA's Day on the Hill and Big Shrimp Legislative Reception will be held in Nashville on March 20. The events give Tennessee lawyers an opportunity to meet with their legislators and talk to them about issues important to the profession, including funding for indigent representation. The TBA Day on the Hill will include a luncheon and meetings with legislators in the afternoon, followed by the annual Big Shrimp reception that night. Sign up now to take part!

Isaiah 117 House, a northeast Tennessee-based nonprofit ministry, broke ground on a new facility in Memphis on Monday. The organization allows children to go to a comfortable environment where trained volunteers can care for them during the period between removal and placement with a foster family. The Daily Memphian reports that in Shelby County, 1,200 children are in state custody. Teenagers make up the largest group, followed by small children from infancy through age 4. The Department of Children's Services (DCS) and Isaiah 117 House leaders began collaborating after they met at a monthly meeting of the Memphis Interfaith Foster and Adoption Ministries, an alliance of churches, agencies, ministries and community advocates who serve foster, adoptive and kinship children and families.

On March 4, Davidson County attorney Wesley Jesse Ladner III received a public censure from the Supreme Court of Tennessee and was ordered to pay the costs and fees of the Board of Professional Responsibility. The censure was conditioned on Ladner engaging a practice monitor for two years, contacting the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program and complying with any of its recommendations. Ladner represented a client in a contentious divorce matter. During the course of the domestic litigation, Ladner engaged in abuses of the discovery process, failed to diligently and timely respond to discovery requests, and made factual misstatements to the court and opposing counsel. Ladner executed a conditional guilty plea acknowledging his conduct violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 8.4(c) and (d).

Burch, Porter & Johnson PLLC has announced that Judge Bernice Donald has joined the firm after retiring from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 2023. Donald will continue her domestic and international arbitration and mediation practice, and her work as a special master, advisor on appellate strategy, and counsel in internal investigations, from the firm’s office in Memphis. In a statement this week, Donald said that the firm's "deep expertise and its leadership in community affairs is a great fit with the mediation, arbitration, appellate advisory and internal investigation work I have done since leaving the bench.” Read the press release from the firm.

A group of Democratic Tennessee lawmakers is asking the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate how the state has further restricted the process for people with felony records to get their voting rights back, reports the Associated Press. The group argues that "Tennessee law permits restoration of voting rights through a straight-forward administrative procedure," but the elections office has imposed additional requirements that people get their full citizenship rights restored or secure a pardon in addition to the restoration processes that have been in place. The policy changes began last summer, halting nearly all voting rights restorations. The issue once again sparked outcries from voting rights advocates after elections officials in January made another legal interpretation that restoration of gun rights is part of the requirement. Because of those changes, coupled with existing state and federal laws for certain offenses that permanently ban someone from getting their gun rights back, critics argue the state’s new policy permanently disenfranchises tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of people from getting another chance to vote.