Hundreds of Knoxville community members, including state and local leaders, recently honored civil rights leader Robert J. Booker at the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Knoxville, reports Knox News. Booker died Feb. 22 at age 88. Booker was remembered as a leader of the Knoxville Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and Knoxville’s first Black state representative. “He was a revolutionary,” said Knox County Commissioner Dasha Lundy. “If he didn’t have that spirit in him, Knoxville wouldn’t be what it is today.”

This is a termination of parental rights case. Appellant/Mother appeals the trial court’s termination of her parental rights on the grounds of: (1) abandonment by failure to support; (2) persistence of the conditions that led to the children’s removal; and (3) failure to manifest an ability and willingness to assume legal and physical custody of or financial responsibility for the children. The trial court also determined that termination of Mother’s parental rights is in the children’s best interests. Discerning no error, we affirm.

The Defendant, Jeffrey Lynn Wilkes, pled guilty in the Dyer County Circuit Court to burglary, a Class D felony, and was sentenced by the trial court as a Range II, multiple offender to five years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, to be served consecutively to his prior Tennessee sentences and to his sentence in a pending Florida case. On appeal, the Defendant argues that the trial court erred by denying a sentence of split confinement that would have enabled the Defendant to enter a rehabilitative program to treat his drug addiction. Based on our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

TBA’s Legislative Updates podcast is new with attorney and TBA lobbyist Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorneys and TBA lobbyists, Brad Lampley and Ashley Harbin. Special guest Chloe Treadway, an intern with Adams and Reese for this legislative session, joins for this episode. This week they discuss HB1804/SB1690 (presumption of joint custody), HB2710/SB2254 (the TBA conservatorship bill) and HB2644/SB2633 (the adoption clean-up bill). Legislative Updates airs each week on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts.

After a Shelby County jury trial, Defendant, Matthew Smith, was convicted of aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, robbery, and theft of property valued at $10,000 or more but less than $60,000. The trial court sentenced him to an effective term of thirty years in the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC). On appeal, Defendant argues the evidence produced at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions and that his dual convictions for robbery and theft violate his protections against double jeopardy. We conclude the evidence was sufficient to sustain Defendant’s convictions, but we also conclude the trial court should have merged Defendant’s convictions for robbery and theft. We, therefore, remand the case to the trial court to merge the appropriate counts but affirm the judgments of the trial court in all other respects.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adopted a final rule effective March 4 to strengthen the integrity of and reduce the potential for fraud in the H-1B registration process. The rule contains provisions that will create a beneficiary-centric selection process for registrations by employers, codify start date flexibility for certain petitions subject to the congressionally mandated H-1B cap and add more integrity measures related to the registration process. Under the beneficiary centric process, registrations will be selected by unique beneficiary rather than by registration, which will ensure each beneficiary would have the same chance of being selected, regardless of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf by an employer. This final rule codifies USCIS’ ability to deny or revoke H-1B petitions where the underlying registration contained a false attestation or was otherwise invalid, and USCIS may also deny or revoke the approval of an H-1B petition if it determines that the fee associated with the registration is declined, not reconciled, disputed or otherwise invalid after submission. Read the full press release.

For the first time, geolocation, the identification of the location of an individual or an object using technology, will have its day in court. Law.com reports that Mata v. Digital Recognition Network Inc. (DRN), filed in the Superior Court of the State of California on behalf of 23 million California residents, is set to begin jury trial on May 17. The named plaintiff representing the class claims that DRN, a privately owned automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), captured images of his vehicle’s license plate over 70 times and used it to create a timeline of his movements by gaining access to his work and home addresses. That information was then added to a marketing database available for sale, in violation of the California License Plate Recognition Law. The plaintiff demands damages in the amount of $2,500 for each class member, amounting to $57.5 billion in total, along with attorney fees and an injunction forbidding DRN from engaging in “unlawful” practices.

The plaintiff attorneys filed this action alleging tortious interference with a business relationship and unlawful procurement of breach of contract, Tennessee Code Annotated section 47-50-109, against the defendant attorney and his law firm for his defense of their former clients in an action to recover fees. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant attorney and the law firm. We affirm.

Mother appeals the trial court’s finding that her children were dependent and neglected. We affirm.

U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Clarksville, announced he will seek reelection despite his “strong desire” to leave Congress this year, reports the Tennessean. Green’s announcement is a reversal from his retirement plans which he announced two weeks ago. Green's retirement would have left the Republican primary in the 7th Congressional District wide open. Green had never faced primary challenger for the seat, which now includes parts of Nashville and Davidson County after a controversial redistricting. Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, a Democrat, announced in December she would seek the Democratic nomination in the 7th Congressional District and challenge Green for the seat.