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.

THAPAR, Circuit Judge. When Jorden Brown fled from police, Officer Samuel Giles tased him. The district court dismissed Brown’s excessive force claims against Officer Giles, the police chief, and the municipality. We affirm.

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. After a jury convicted Marlon Johnson of firearm and drug-trafficking offenses, the district court sentenced him to 300 months’ imprisonment. Johnson raises constitutional, statutory, and evidentiary challenges to his convictions. Johnson also argues that his sentence is substantively unreasonable. For the following reasons, we affirm.

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.

CLAY, Circuit Judge. Defendant Michael Angelo appeals several district court orders enforcing a settlement agreement he entered into with Plaintiff State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (“State Farm”) in this action alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq. The district court orders compelled Angelo to solicit the government’s consent to dismiss his claims against State Farm in a separate action under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq. Angelo argues that the district court orders violated the FCA, Sixth Circuit precedent, and his First Amendment rights.

For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the district court’s orders in full.

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).

The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant hospital in this premises liability case, finding that the defendant had no notice of the alleged dangerous or defective condition on its premises. The plaintiff has appealed. Following our review, we determine that the plaintiff was not provided notice and a reasonable opportunity to respond to all issues to be considered by the trial court at the summary judgment stage. Accordingly, we vacate the trial court's grant of summary judgment.

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.

Pro se Petitioner, Alfonso Thomas Peck,1 was convicted by a Hamilton County jury of two counts of aggravated rape, for which he received concurrent sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1, which the trial court summarily denied in part and granted in part. On appeal, the Petitioner challenges the partial summary denial, arguing that his sentences are illegal because the judgment documents fail to specify the sentence length in years. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.