CLAY, Circuit Judge. Defendant Demari Lepaul Thomas-Mathews appeals his sentence after pleading guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), and two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i). For the reasons set forth below, the Court VACATES his sentence and REMANDS for resentencing consistent with the opinion of this Court.

Davidson County General Sessions Court Judge Lynda Jones will be the keynote speaker for the Nashville Conflict Resolution Center's (NCRC) Mediation Matters Breakfast. NCRC will host the annual event on Sept. 7 at 7 a.m. CDT at Hillwood Country Club. A brief program outlining the organization’s service to the community and recognizing community heroes will begin at 7:30 a.m. “We look forward to honoring this year’s community heroes ...” said NCRC Executive Director Sara Figalof. “This event is always a celebration of great accomplishments.” Read a press release from the group for more details.

CHAD A. READLER, Circuit Judge. Youth sports are as much about instilling life lessons as they are winning and losing. Child athletes can be forgiven for occasionally losing sight of this bigger picture. But we expect more from their parents.

As this case demonstrates, those expectations are not always met. Randall McElhaney is an enthusiastic supporter of his daughter, who, when this dispute arose, was an infielder on her high school softball team. His passion, however, sometimes gets the best of him. When his daughter was benched, McElhaney sent text messages to her coach criticizing his managerial decisions. In response, school officials banned McElhaney from attending games for the next week.

A dispute over the team’s starting infield soon became much more. McElhaney filed this suit, alleging that school officials retaliated against him for criticizing his daughter’s coach, speech that McElhaney believed was shielded by the First Amendment. Defendants moved for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. In their minds, McElhaney was not denied a constitutional right, let alone one that was clearly established. Reaching only the clearly established prong of qualified immunity, the district court granted defendants’ motion and entered judgment in their favor.

As we see things, it is clearly established at a low level of generality that when a school employee interacts with a student, speech by the student’s parent about those interactions enjoys First Amendment protection. On that basis, we must reverse the district court. We remand the case to resolve whether retaliation occurred in the first instance.

NALBANDIAN, J., Circuit Judge. In 1986, Danny Hill was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Ohio state court. For 37 years, he’s been challenging his conviction and sentence. The Supreme Court vacated the decision of a panel of this Court to grant federal habeas relief. After that, we again granted habeas relief based on different reasoning, and an en banc panel of this Court vacated that opinion and denied Hill’s petition for relief. With the first petition unsuccessful, Hill has filed a second habeas petition. It’s “second or successive.” So Hill must meet the gatekeeping provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2).

The Chester County Grand Jury indicted Defendant, Jerry Ray Mullins, for the first-degree murder of the victim, Samantha Melendez. Following a jury trial, he was convicted of the lesser-included offense of second degree murder. The trial court imposed a twenty-twoyear sentence to be served in the Department of Correction. On appeal, Defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction because he acted in self-defense when he shot the victim twice in the head. Following our review of the entire record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The defendant, Benjamin Spencer Brown, appeals the trial court’s imposition of consecutive sentences for his Hamilton County Criminal Court jury convictions of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. Discerning no error, we affirm.

Elizabeth Christmas and John M. Kington were romantically involved for many years. When the parties’ relationship ended, Dr. Kington reported to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office (“the Sheriff’s Office”) the theft of several items of jewelry from his home. At the conclusion of the Sheriff’s Office’s investigation, a grand jury indicted Ms. Christmas for theft of property valued at more than $250,000. The State of Tennessee (“the State”) later dismissed the charge of theft before the case proceeded to trial. Ms. Christmas subsequently filed a complaint and an amended complaint against Dr. Kington in the Hamilton County Circuit Court (“Trial Court”) alleging, inter alia, malicious prosecution and abuse of process. Dr. Kington filed a motion for summary judgment, which the Trial Court granted. Ms. Christmas appealed. Discerning no reversible error, we affirm the judgment of the Trial Court.

An expedited hearing has been scheduled by Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin for Monday in response to a legal dispute regarding the Tennessee House of Representatives' decision to prohibit protest signs during the special legislative session. The Tennessee Lookout reports that a temporary restraining order remains in place, preventing the enforcement of the ban on signs, as granted by Martin earlier this week. House Republican leaders claim that the temporary restraining order “intrudes on the core exercise of a co-equal branch’s authority” and that “disregard for separation of powers in this instance threatens to erode the structural protections that fortify the judicial and executive branches against undue incursion by the General Assembly.” WSMV has more on their arguments.

Fifty years ago, around 39,000 children in Memphis, roughly a third of the city's schools population, were instructed to integrate racially by transferring to new schools via a busing initiative known as Plan Z. This was an expansion of the earlier Plan A, aiming to integrate schools following the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision. However, Plan Z resulted in unintended consequences, with many white students leaving the system for private schools, leading to shifting demographics and development patterns in the city. The Daily Memphian is marking this anniversary with an oral history series, examining the impact of busing from various perspectives.

In a letter to Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOC) Director Roslynn Mauskopf, the judicial watchdog group Fix the Court says that 31 U.S. federal appeals court judges have attended privately-funded seminars at luxury resorts on 76 occasions since 2021. Reuters reports that the group claims these seminars appear more like paid vacations than educational events. Fix the Court argues that the luxury nature and ideological content of the events may conflict with ethical guidelines. It urges further financial transparency and investigation into the events by the AOC.