SUTTON, Chief Judge. Tennessee enacted a law that prohibits healthcare providers from performing gender-affirming surgeries and administering hormones or puberty blockers to transgender minors. After determining that the law likely violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses, the district court facially enjoined the law’s enforcement as to hormones and puberty blockers and applied the injunction to all people in the State. Tennessee appealed and moved for an emergency stay of the district court’s order. Because Tennessee is likely to succeed on its appeal of the preliminary injunction, we grant the stay.

If you missed "Accounting 101: An Attorney’s Crash Course in Understanding Financial Documents" this past spring, join us this Friday for a replay of the webcast. The program, airing at noon CDT, will cover the essential principles of accounting that attorneys should know, including how accounting can be crucial to certain cases, how to read and understand key financial documents, how to know which financial questions you should be asking your clients, and which documents you need from your clients or opposing counsel.

Salah Ayesh, a former board member of the Islamic Center of Tennessee (ICT), is being sued by the mosque and has been barred from entering the facility by a restraining order. The ICT board ousted Ayesh after he entered the business office without permission, sought to hire a consulting firm to complete a forensic audit and made an attempt to fire an imam. The Tennessean reports that Davidson County Chancellor I'Ashea L. Myles granted ICT's request for a restraining order on Monday, saying “employees and parishioners may face further damage, harassment, threats and interference with its legitimate business.”

A Shelby County jury convicted the Petitioner, Martrice Thomas, of first degree premeditated murder. The Petitioner appealed her conviction, and this court affirmed the trial court’s judgment. State v. Martrice Thomas, No. W2017-02489-CCA-R3-CD, 2018 WL 6266277, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App., Nov. 29, 2018), perm. app. denied (Tenn. March 28, 2019). On April 6, 2020, more than a year after the expiration of the statute of limitations, the Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief, alleging that her trial counsel was ineffective. After a hearing, the trial court denied relief, finding that the Petitioner had received the effective assistance of counsel. The Petitioner appeals, maintaining that her trial counsel was ineffective for failing to introduce evidence of Battered Woman Syndrome at trial. Because the post-conviction court treated the petition as timely from the outset of the hearing, thereby preempting any proof the Petitioner may have presented to show that due process considerations required tolling of the statute of limitations, we remand the case for a hearing on the sole issue of the statute of limitations.

Paula Christine Hutcherson, Defendant, appeals after a jury found her guilty of eight counts of unlawful possession of a firearm in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 39- 17-1307(b)(1)(B). The trial court subsequently sentenced her to ten years for each conviction, to be served concurrently, and ordered the sentences suspended to supervised probation. On appeal, Defendant argues that her prior convictions for obtaining drugs by fraud are not “felony crimes of violence” or “felony drug offenses” within the meaning of Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-17-1307(b)(1) and that her convictions must be reversed. Because we determine that Defendant’s prior convictions for obtaining drugs by fraud are felony drug offenses for the purposes of Tennessee Code Annotated section 39- 17-1307(b)(1)(B), we affirm Defendant’s convictions. However, during our review of the record, we identified possible clerical errors on the judgment forms concerning the arrest date and pretrial jail credit dates. On remand, the trial court should enter corrected judgment forms if necessary.

This appeal arises from a petition to establish parentage and a parenting plan pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 36–2–311 for a child born out of wedlock. In finding that the statutory best interest factors set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-6-106(a) favored the father, the trial court designated the father as the primary residential parent of the parties’ minor child and ruled that the child would live with the father in Tennessee during the school year and spend the majority of the summers and holidays with Mother in Texas. The mother appeals. We affirm.

In this quiet title action, the pro se defendant appeals the trial court’s decision to permit constructive service by publication in lieu of personal service, pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 21-1-203(a)(2). Because Plaintiff met the statutory requirements of service by publication and because constructive service by publication was effective to establish the trial court’s personal jurisdiction over Defendant, we affirm.

In this interlocutory appeal, the employer challenges the trial court’s determination that the employee is likely to prevail at trial in proving he was an employee eligible to seek workers’ compensation benefits. Upon careful consideration of the record, we affirm the trial court’s order for reasons other than those stated by the trial court and remand the case.

This appeal involves a capital post-conviction petitioner’s expert funding requests under Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 13. A jury convicted the Petitioner, Jessie Dotson, of six counts of premeditated first-degree murder and sentenced him to death. This Court affirmed the jury’s verdict. The Petitioner filed for post-conviction relief, alleging several grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. He requested funds under Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 13 to hire expert witnesses to assist in establishing his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. The post-conviction court authorized the funds, but the Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and the Chief Justice denied approval for some of the Petitioner’s requested experts. After an evidentiary hearing, the post-conviction court denied relief. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the ruling without deciding the Petitioner’s Rule 13 constitutional challenges. We granted review to consider the Petitioner’s constitutional issues regarding Rule 13. We hold the provisions of Rule 13 are constitutional as applied; the Petitioner was not unconstitutionally denied appellate review of the denial of his request for expert funds; and the Petitioner was not deprived of a full and fair post-conviction hearing due to the denial of expert funds.

The Mid-South Commercial Law Institute has elected five new directors to serve five-year terms: Justin Campbell of Thompson Burton PLLC, Michael W. Ewell of Frantz, McConnell & Seymour LLP, Laura F. Ketcham of Miller & Martin PLLC, Elizabeth Parrott of McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce LLC and Gray Waldron of Dunham Hildebrand PLLC. Officers are President James E. Bailey III of Butler Snow LLP, Vice President/President-elect Paul G. Jennings of Bass, Berry & Sims PLC, Secretary Cynthia N. Podis of Podis & Podis, Treasurer Stephen D. Barham of Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel PC and Immediate Past President Shanna Fuller Veach, Career Law Clerk to Hon. Suzanne H. Bauknight.