The Tennessee Supreme Court will be at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law on Wednesday to hear oral arguments in three cases. The proceeding will begin at 9 a.m. CDT with the case of State of Tennessee v. Christopher Oberton Curry Jr., which will test whether there was sufficient evidence to support Curry’s conviction and whether the trial court jury instructions properly defined the term “crime of violence.” At 10:15 a.m, the court will hear arguments in the case of Leah Gilliam v. David Gerregano, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Revenue et al. Gilliam is challenging the department’s revocation of her vanity license plate more than 10 years after issuing it. At 1:15 p.m., the court will hear the final case, State of Tennessee v. Andre Jujuan Lee Green, which will test whether the scent of marijuana detected by a canine is probable cause for a warrantless search. Green will argue that a canine cannot distinguish between the smell of illegal marijuana and legal hemp. The proceedings will be livestreamed on the court’s YouTube page.

The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance has ended an 18-month inquiry into Tennessee Stands founder Gary Humble’s 2022 Senate campaign, the Tennessean reports. The registry had been looking into Humble’s records to determine whether his campaign unlawfully coordinated with the group.

The 16th Judicial District Recovery Court recently celebrated the graduation of five individuals who completed an 18-month program focused on intervention, treatment and rehabilitation for substance use disorders. At an event marking the occasion, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sarah K. Campbell delivered remarks and congratulations to the participants. Also on hand were Rutherford Mayor Joe Carr, Recovery Courts Support Foundation President and attorney Thomas Parkerson, Recovery Courts Director LaChelle Ricks and Circuit Court Judge Jimmy Turner. Yahoo News has more in a story from the Daily News Journal. The court, which serves Cannon and Rutherford counties, has seen 400 participants graduate since the program was founded in 2000, by now retired Circuit Court Judge Don R. Ash. More information is available online or in this YouTube video.

The Biden administration last week announced new guidance on how federal agencies can and cannot use artificial intelligence, National Public Radio reports. In a memo released by the Office of Management and Budget, officials said the guidance is a significant step in trying to ensure safe use of AI by balancing risk and innovation. Among the provisions, the guidance directs each agency to appoint a chief artificial intelligence officer and lays out plans to hire 100 AI professionals by the summer. Agencies have until Dec. 1 to implement the required safeguards.

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. Companies are free to tout their own goods, services, and business dealings. And they can talk about the business activities of other companies. But the Lanham Act and the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) prohibit a company from falsely advertising or misrepresenting the goods, services, and activities of another company, or itself, if such false advertisement or misrepresentation damages the other company. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1)(B); Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 47-18-104(b)(8), -109(a)(1).

In this case, FedEx Ground Packaging Systems, Inc. (“FXG”) claims that Route Consultant, Inc. publicized nine false or misleading statements about its business practices. FXG claims that Route Consultant made the statements to foster discontent between FXG and its contractors, which would damage FXG and benefit Route Consultant. So FXG sued Route Consultant under the Lanham Act’s false-advertising provision and the TCPA’s statutory-disparagement provision. Because we agree with the district court that FXG failed to plausibly allege that Route Consultant made a single false or misleading statement, we affirm.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge. Jyoti Agrawal successfully obtained over $1.5 million in federal and state grants to research and develop a scanning electron microscope. But fraud tainted these grants. Agrawal received the largest grant by forging a letter in her company’s application to the Department of Energy. She later lied to the Department about how her company had spent the funds, failing to disclose (among other things) that she had used a portion to pay for her MBA. A jury convicted Agrawal of three financial crimes. The district court found that her conduct had caused $1,548,255 in “loss” when calculating her guidelines range. It also ordered Agrawal to pay that amount back in restitution and authorized the United States to confiscate her house and personal financial accounts as part of a separate forfeiture judgment.

On appeal, Agrawal challenges the district court’s evidentiary and instructional rulings at trial. She challenges the court’s estimate of the amount of the “loss” from her fraud, claiming that the court should have reduced its estimate by the sums she legitimately spent on the research-and-development project. She lastly challenges the court’s decision to find her personal property forfeitable due to the fraud. But the alleged evidentiary and instructional errors were all harmless. The district court also properly refused to offset its “loss” amount by her project expenses because it reasonably found that the Department would not have awarded her most of the grant funds if it had known of the fraud. And the court properly subjected her personal property to forfeiture because she commingled that property with grant funds. We thus affirm.

The Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (LMU Law) Bankruptcy Moot Court team made its first appearance at the Sixth Annual Midwest Moot Court Competition last month. The team, comprised of Kelli Holmes, Rowan Jordan and Courtney Keegan-Smith, placed second overall. The school also recently fielded a team for the 32nd Annual Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition in New York. In this event, the team finished with the fourth highest brief score. Read more on the school’s Facebook page. Finally, the school sent two teams to the Texas Young Lawyers National Trial Competition. Two members advanced to the semifinals and finished in sixth place.

At issue in this appeal is whether an individual, now deceased, lacked the requisite mental capacity when he signed a durable power of attorney for health care. The trial court answered this question in the affirmative, specifically concluding that there was clear and convincing evidence that the decedent was incompetent. As a result of this determination, the trial court further concluded that an arbitration agreement later signed by the decedent’s brother using the power of attorney was invalid, a conclusion which in turn prompted the trial court to deny the Defendants’ motion to compel arbitration on the basis of that agreement. For the reasons stated herein, we affirm the order of the trial court.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Richardson Wyrick, of the District Court for the Eastern Grand Division of Tennessee in Greeneville, will be the commencement speaker for the Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (LMU Law) graduating class of 2024. Wyrick, a former TBA president, will address the 96 graduating students on May 9 at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium, beginning at 4 p.m. EDT. Read more about her career in a news release from the school.

The Tennessee Bar Association is accepting nominations for its 2024 Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award now through this Friday. The Drowota Award is given to a judge or judicial branch official of a federal, state or local court in Tennessee who has demonstrated extraordinary devotion and dedication to the improvement of the law, the legal system and the administration of justice, as exemplified by the career of former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Frank F. Drowota III. The award will be presented at the TBA Annual Convention's Bench Bar Luncheon on June 13.